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James
Dorsey

Journalist, Researcher

Biography

Well-known journalist James Dorsey is a renowned Middle East specialist. Reporting on current affairs from Turkey for many years, Dorsey’s journalism career keeps going from strength to strength.  

A well-known journalist in the Middle East, Dorsey writes for Hurriyet Daily News, The Huffington Post and The Daily Independent. Dorsey is a Western Asia senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore. He is currently working on a book that will share the title of his widely acclaimed and quoted blog “The Turbulent World of Middle Eastern Soccer.” Dorsey also sits on the executive board of the “Institute of Fan Culture” at Wuerzburg University.

As a prolific journalist, James Dorsey has become one of the most well-known writers in the Middle East. Dorsey has also been complementing his career in journalism with other roles for a while now. He writes an influential blog, where he looks at the Middle East’s soccer industry. He was the mentor to Klaus Schwab when he was the executive chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Summits of the World Economic Forum, held in Casablanca, Amman and Cairo between 1995 and 2004. He provided media training sessions for senior managers and important figures, including Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Minister of Foreign Trade and his senior staff, as well as teams working for the World Water Forum and the World Bank Institute. He has conducted seminars in many countries, including Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mali, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. In September 2011, he was the moderator at the Singapore International Community Engagement Conference and in September 2012 he gave the opening speech at the 20th EU Conference on Sports Management, held in Aalborg, Denmark.

Who is James Dorsey?

James Dorsey studied economics at Amsterdam University and Tropical Agriculture at Wageningen Agriculture University. His 40-year career in journalism and consulting has taken him all around the world. Between 1983 and 1987, he worked for United Press International as the bureau chief in Athens, Ankara and Jerusalem and the senior correspondent in the Middle East and London offices. Between 1987 and 1991, he worked as a Washington-based diplomatic and national security affairs correspondent for Washington Times. Between 1993 and 2003, he worked for The Wall Street Journal as the senior correspondent for the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Riyadh. Dorsey lived in Istanbul for a long time during this period and he reported on current affairs from Istanbul. Dorsey speaks English, German, Spanish and Dutch fluently, and has a theoretical knowledge of Arabic, Turkish, French and Hebrew grammar.

Speech Topics

• Life in the Middle East, Turkey – Middle East Relations

• “Fan Club” management in politics and sports

• Security – soldier – civilian relations

• Political and economic analysis

• Sports and the economy of sports

• Relations between sports and politics

• Sexism in sports

• International politics and relations

• Macro interpretation of mass movements

• The Olympics, F1 – “mega events” and their effect on countries

• Media relations