Dr Dawood Azami is an award winning journalist and academic. He works as a Multi-Media Editor at the BBC World Service in London, leading a team of journalists in covering international news and current affairs. He joined the BBC in 1999 and reported from more than a dozen countries making programmes on security, political and international affairs.

He also served as the BBC World Service Editor and Bureau Chief in Kabul, Afghanistan (2010 and 2011). Dawood worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster, London, teaching on a B.A. module called “Globalization, Power and International Governance” (2012-2015). He also taught on the M.A. module “International Politics of Resources: The Resources Wars.”

Prior to that, he served as a Visiting Scholar at the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA (1996 and 1999) lecturing and researching political, cultural and security issues in the Middle East. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. He is also a Consulting Member at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London. Dawood’s PhD looked at the drugs funded conflicts and state (un)building. He investigated links between illegal drugs and insurgencies and focused mainly on four countries/ insurgencies — FARC (Colombia), PKK (Turkey), LTTE (Sri Lanka) and Taliban (Afghanistan).

He also holds three Master’s degrees including International Relations, Politics, and Diplomacy. Dawood has participated as a speaker in more than a hundred conference/seminars including ECPR (European Consortium for Political Research) Joint Sessions; World Economic Forum, Davos; New York Forum, Africa (Gabon); Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London; and International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London.

He has in depth knowledge of international political and security affairs and is familiar with cultural, social, ethnic and tribal dynamics in South and Central Asia and the Middle East. In addition to the daily coverage of international news and current affairs, he has produced and presented several special radio documentaries/features for the BBC World Service on a wide range of topics including security, politics, culture, arts, religion and human rights.

He has also written dozens of investigative and analytical articles for media outlets as well as academic journals, think tanks and research institutes. He has travelled extensively in the world and has visited more than thirty countries for journalistic and academic activities. He has reported from several hostile places including Waziristan, Helmand, Kandahar, Tora Bora and the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Dawood has won many awards and prizes.

He was honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2011. In 2012, he was selected as a European Young Leader under the first pan-European program of leadership called ’40 under 40’. And in 2009, he became the youngest person to ever win the biggest award in the BBC, “Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution”.

He was also given the 2015 Journalist of the Mediterranean Award in Italy. Dawood speaks five languages (Pashto, Urdu/Hindi, Dari/Persian, and English) and has a working knowledge of Arabic and Turkish. He also paints and practices calligraphy.