Rémy Ourdan /

Rémy Ourdan began in journalism with a for-real game of Grand Theft Auto. He headed toward Sarajevo in 1992, under siege from all sides. From Paris, he caught a train to the Dalmatian coast, found wheels, and drove in. That was how you did it in those early days of Bosnian mayhem. A reckoning with car owners came later; meantime, there was a world-changing story to cover. At the Hotel Europa, among desperate refugees sheltering from shell blasts
and flames, out of money and short of prospects, he connected with a French radio station and taught himself reporting.

Unlike many young runners and gunners who get hooked on action, Ourdan quickly saw war was about human detail and big issues. Within two years, the prestigious Le Monde hired him. He covered the siege until its end and then waded into the African killing fields and the Middle East. When war erupted in Kosovo, he walked in over the mountains, maneuvering between Serb death squads and NATO air strikes. After 9/11, he got into Afghanistan, and then reported Iraq from the first air strikes.

Ourdan, named Le Monde foreign editor in 2005, was as skillful on a desk as he was in the field. But, a reporter at heart, he went back on the road in 2008.

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Contributions

America vs. Al Qaeda: A Foe’s Best Fried

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