Claire Berlinski

Istanbul, Turkey
Contact

Professional Experience

I'm an American freelance investigative journalist, a City Journal contributing editor, a Senior Fellow for Turkey of the American Foreign Policy Council, travel writer, biographer, and novelist who lives in Istanbul with a menagerie of adopted stray animals. I'm the author of two works of non-fiction and two spy novels. I specialize in the kind of reporting that results in death threats and marriage proposals, sometimes from the same person. Please contact me for political, cultural and economic reporting from Turkey and Middle East.

Expertise

Book Author
10 Years
Reporter
4 Years
Researcher
22 Years

Specialty

International
24 Years
Politics
24 Years
War & Conflicts
17 Years

Industries


Magazine - Large Consumer/National magazines
17 Years
Online/new media
2 Years
Academia Teaching
2 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

24 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

City Journal (6-10), Ricochet (10+), Gatestone International Policy Council (10+)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Gerson Lehrman Group (1-2)

Other Work History

My journalism has been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, First Post, the Oxford International Review, Gatestone International Policy Council, the Guardian, The American, Asia Times, the Claremont Review of Books, City A.M, the Globe and Mail, the New York Sun, The Weekly Standard, the Middle East Journal of International Affairs, the National, National Review, the National Interest, the Financial Times, the Spectator, Policy Review, Penthouse, Radio Free Europe, Standpoint, World Affairs Journal, Azure, Traveler's Tales, Tablet, Travel & Leisure, Arabies Trends, and numerous anthologies and encyclopedias. I'm an occasional guest on local and international radio and television shows. I've also worked as an editor for Asia Times and Ricochet, and as a private consultant to clients with an interest in Turkish domestic politics, the Turkish economy, and Turkish foreign policy.

Technical Skills

Cat chewed through your expensive Mac power cord? Give me five minutes, a pair of tweezers, a Bic lighter and some electrical tape and you'll be good as new. In fact, if you're feeling lucky, we can skip the electrical tape. And the lighter.

Foreign Language Skills

Fluent French, mangled Turkish, some Thai, can usually manage to communicate in any Indo-European language.

Computer Skills

No programming skills to speak of, but I can manage pretty much everything a journalist needs to do--Mac or Windows, it doesn't matter.

Equipment

Mac OSX, TC1100 Tablet (beats the iPad, by the way), Canon PowerShot SD750, digital recorder, notebook, pens.

Work Permits & Visas

Turkish residency permit, indefinite.

References

“Among the journalists who cover Turkey and the broader region, Claire is, by far, the sharpest observer of political, social and economic events. Her analysis and writing are analytical, incisive and objective. She has a keen eye for nuances in untangling political landscape in a rapidly changing region. ---Tanju Yurukoglu, Managing Principal, Eurasia Policy Associates. “I had the chance to work/collaborate with Claire Berlinski numerous times over the years. To put it succinctly, she is one of the - if not THE - best international journalist reporting out of Turkey. You should also read her books. She is an exceptional writer.” --Okan Altiparmak, President, NiMBUS PRODUCTIONS For further references, please consult my profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/claire-berlinski/6/b7/355

Awards

Rotary International Scholarship Rhodes Scholarship Finalist British Overseas Studentship Moody Grant, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation Balliol College Jenkyns Prize for outstanding performance in final exams

Showcase

Non-fiction

Dread and exhilaration in a city on the verge of political catastrophe ....
Despite government reassurances, Britons feel under siege--with good reason ...
The key to understanding the Dominican Republic is to imagine a country where Jennifer Lopez is the president, Ricky Martin the secretary of the interior, Christina Aguilera the secretary of state, and their backup singers the Supreme Court ...
The arrival of the World Economic Forum in Istanbul this week was overshadowed in the Turkish media by the arrival of Madonna and her entourage, although there was a symmetry in events--massive security, caravans of expensive cars with tinted windows, snarled traffic and cab drivers cursing them all. Tagging behind the Material Girl was her twenty-four-year-old lover, Brahim Zaibat; tagging behind Turkey's mercurial prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. In both cases, the pair looked every inch the happy couple ...
Controversial Muslim preacher, feared Turkish intriguer, and inspirer of the largest charter school network in America ....
In an increasingly urbanized world, earthquakes threaten unprepared cities with mass destruction ...
I arrived in Paris to find commuter trains on strike, graffiti everywhere, the streets filthy, and every restaurant at which one might eat with a toddler closed. But Paris is always like this, and I saw no sign of distress at the imminent prospect of the eurozone breakup or even much evidence of a recession ...
America should learn from Britain's disastrous takeover of its biggest auto company ... .
If you are not allowed to keep these tapes on your computer, how can you threaten your enemies with them? The issue people should have been concerned about was not porn at all, but the implementation of a system that allows the government at will to to shut off channels of political dissent--a feat it managed quite successfully ...

General

Click the link to read pretty much everything I've published in any reputable or disreputable magazine.