Who we are
The Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan was founded in 1998 by Edward Girardet and Jonathan Walter. The first three editions (1998, 2004 and 2006) were edited by Girardet and Walter with Charles Norchi and Mirwais Massoud as co-editors. The current 4th edition is being co-edited with former Time correspondent, William Dowell.
The Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan was founded in 1998 by Edward Girardet and Jonathan Walter. The first three editions (1998, 2004 and 2006) were edited by Girardet and Walter with Charles Norchi and Mirwais Massoud as co-editors. The current 4th edition is being co-edited with former Time correspondent, William Dowell.
Edward Girardet
Edward Girardet is a Swiss-American journalist, writer and producer who has reported widely from humanitarian and conflict zones in Africa, Asia and elsewhere since the late 1970s. As a foreign correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report, and The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour based in Paris, he first began covering Afghanistan several months prior to the Soviet invasion in 1979. He has worked on numerous television current affairs and documentary segments on subjects ranging from the war in Angola to lost tribes in Western New Guinea and environmental issues in Africa for major European and North American broadcasters. In the mid-1990s, Mr. Girardet became co-founding director of Crosslines Global Report and Media Action International, a non-profit foundation focusing on public awareness and needs-based media initiatives in Afghanistan, southern Balkans, including Kosovo, Rwanda, West Africa, Mozambique, and Indonesia. Today Mr. Girardet writes for National Geographic Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, International Herald Tribune and other publications on humanitarian, media and conflict issues.
Girardet has also written and edited several books, notably Afghanistan – The Soviet War(1985), Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond (1996) Populations in Danger (1996) and The Crosslines Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan (1998, 2004, 2006 and now 2011). His latest book, Killing the Cranes - A Repoter's Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan, which is based on his personal experiences since first covering the Afghan wars in October, 1979, is being published by Chelsea Green (USA) in September, 2011. Afghanistan - The Soviet War has been re-published by Routledge in July, 2011. Girardet and his wife Loretta live in neighbouring France outside of Geneva with their children, Elisa and Alexander.
Girardet has also written and edited several books, notably Afghanistan – The Soviet War(1985), Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond (1996) Populations in Danger (1996) and The Crosslines Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan (1998, 2004, 2006 and now 2011). His latest book, Killing the Cranes - A Repoter's Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan, which is based on his personal experiences since first covering the Afghan wars in October, 1979, is being published by Chelsea Green (USA) in September, 2011. Afghanistan - The Soviet War has been re-published by Routledge in July, 2011. Girardet and his wife Loretta live in neighbouring France outside of Geneva with their children, Elisa and Alexander.
William Dowell
William Dowell is a US born freelance writer based in Geneva, Switzerland. William works as the European Regional Editor and Correspondent for Global News Enterprises (http://www.globalpost.com),
a Boston-based internet news service focusing on international reporting, and on freelance
assignments for the World Economic Forum and for The
International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne.
From 1971 to 1989, William worked for NBC News, ABC News, and for The Time Magazine in the Paris bureau (1975-1989), as a staff correspondent covering the Arab world and Iran (1989-1993), as the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, based in Hong Kong (1993-1995) and as the Northeast USA bureau (1995-2001). For the New York University (2001-2005) William taught graduate courses on journalism in the Middle East, and undergraduate honours course on the literature of journalism, and edited The Global Beat, a website focusing on foreign policy analysis. He was then the Media and Information Coordinator for CARE Emergency Group in the International Secretariat of Geneva from 2005 to 2008. He realized personal reporting on the ground following floods in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, the 1995 earth quake in Pakistan, and Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, also drought in the Horn of Africa. William Dowell has a son studying law at Emory law School, and his wife Michelle owns an art gallery in Geneva. They live in Ferney Voltaire (France). Dowell is currently co-authoring a book on China.
Edward Girardet and William Dowell are also founders and editors of the Essential Edge (http://www.essentialgeneva.com), an internet-based magazine for the greater Geneva region.
From 1971 to 1989, William worked for NBC News, ABC News, and for The Time Magazine in the Paris bureau (1975-1989), as a staff correspondent covering the Arab world and Iran (1989-1993), as the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, based in Hong Kong (1993-1995) and as the Northeast USA bureau (1995-2001). For the New York University (2001-2005) William taught graduate courses on journalism in the Middle East, and undergraduate honours course on the literature of journalism, and edited The Global Beat, a website focusing on foreign policy analysis. He was then the Media and Information Coordinator for CARE Emergency Group in the International Secretariat of Geneva from 2005 to 2008. He realized personal reporting on the ground following floods in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, the 1995 earth quake in Pakistan, and Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, also drought in the Horn of Africa. William Dowell has a son studying law at Emory law School, and his wife Michelle owns an art gallery in Geneva. They live in Ferney Voltaire (France). Dowell is currently co-authoring a book on China.
Edward Girardet and William Dowell are also founders and editors of the Essential Edge (http://www.essentialgeneva.com), an internet-based magazine for the greater Geneva region.
Jonathan Walter
Jonathan Walter is a freelance writer and editor specializing in humanitarian issues. From 1998 o 2006, he edited the World Disasters Report, published by the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He is also author of The End of Development, published by the New Economics Foundation in London. Apart from hitch-hiking through Afghanistan three times to research for this field guide, he has worked in Nepal as community aid director for a leading NGO, in Kosovo on media projects for returnees, and in Kenya as a volunteer among the Samburu people. For four years, Walter served in south-east Asia as an officer in the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas. A keen mountaineer, he has led expeditions to the Alps, Himalayas and Borneo. He holds masters degrees in comparative religions from Cambridge University and philosophy from St. Andrew’s University. Walter is currently based in New Delhi, where he operates a "zipping" company, Flying Fox.
Charles Norchi
Charles Norchi has worked as a journalist, human rights lawyer and consultant in Afghanistan from the Soviet occupation of the 1980s to the present. He has published in major newspapers and contributed to books on foreign affairs, international law and Afghanistan. Norchi has traveled widely on various human rights, reporting and advisory initiatives ranging from the Indian subcontinent to Southern Africa, notably Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. He has lectured or otherwise participated in fora in Geneva, Switzerland for Media Action International and other organizations with particular emphasis on democracy building, communications and security in conflict and post-conflict situations. Norchi is a consultant to the World Bank; a Fellow at Yale Law School; a director of the Policy Science Center, Inc.; Fellow of the Explorers Club; and a professor at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA., USA.
Mirwais Masood
Mirwais Masood began his career teaching English for Afghan
refugees in Islamabad, Pakistan in 1996. Five years later, Masood, who is
originally from Kabul, became head of the English Language Programme (ELP) in
Islamabad. In early 2002, he joined Media Action International (MAI) as
assistant programme coordinator for Afghanistan. Masood worked on a number of
different projects, notably the CROSSLINES Essential Field Guide to
Afghanistan. He helped establish various MAI projects, such as the Novice
Journalism Training Programme in conjunction with the universities of Kabul,
Herat and Balkh, and was editor of the Dari-Pashto edition of the Afghanistan
Monitor. Aside from his MAI activities, Masood has reported for the
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) plus researched for National
Geographic. He is now working with UNICEF in Kabul.
Research Associates
| Nick Smit & Lola Cecchinel
Summer 2011
Nick Smit is South African born swiss resident. He has studied his undergrad in both the U.K (Exeter Univ.) and the U.S (Boston MA). He spent a year traveling to Australia and then the U.S, mostly California. Predominant areas of study include criminal law and sociology. Nick contributed to designing the EFG website and now runs his own web design company. Lola Cecchinel is a French student in the International Security Masters at Sciences Po Paris. She has lived in Peru and extensively traveled across the Latin American continent. She has started with the EFG editors in June 2011 and kept working on the publication of the fourth edition of the field guide till now. Mark Rafferty & Emily Pantalone
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