Sport is being used by governments to strengthen international ties.
Diplomacy allows governments to influence one other’s national interests without using force. Diplomacy negotiates and settles disputes peacefully. People-to-people diplomacy became popular in the 20th century.
Public diplomacy involves public institutions, informal groupings, and individuals from many public life sectors in international relations. Sports diplomacy is an important aspect of public diplomacy.
Sports diplomacy involves nations, governments, and special foreign policy agencies arranging, conducting, and participating in international athletic events to achieve foreign policy goals. S. Murray, an American academic, defines sports diplomacy as sports institution representatives representing the state in diplomacy and representation. Sports diplomacy is one tactic in a state’s foreign policy armory. Athletes, sports authorities, and sports contests are used to promote their nation abroad.
Sports diplomacy involves governments, government agencies, international and national sports associations, players, coaches, sports professionals, the media, fan movements, and more. Official and unofficial sports diplomacy efforts exist.
Officially, athletic tournaments are used for informal political discussions, problem-solving, and agreement-making. Xi Jinping met with leaders from Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Poland, and others at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Sports diplomacy unofficially influences foreign people by showing a state’s might, power, and prosperity. In particular, France regards sport as one of its instruments of worldwide influence, whose main goal is to strengthen the country’s international image, promote French know-how, and encourage the use of the French language.
Nowadays, sports diplomacy integrates, promotes peace, and builds friendships across nations. Sports are also utilized for causes other than world peace. Sports diplomacy may settle difficulties, start disputes, or exert political pressure depending on political situations, international partnerships, and diplomatic goals. This dichotomy defines sports as a political weapon.
Diplomatically, the 1998 FIFA World Cup match between Iran and the US was symbolic. Political tensions between the two states caused much upheaval before the event. Nonetheless, athletes from both countries exchanged presents and flowers and were photographed before the match. The match symbolized Iran-US ties warming up before a 2000 friendly match in the US.
Major international competitions may unite the world, but they can also divide. Sport and politics often serve the selfish objectives of nations that are harmful to world peace. The latter has been linked to boycotting, isolating, or propagandizing athletes. This may include the German Nazis and Italian Fascists, who exploited international sports contests to spread their new political systems and philosophies.
Nonetheless, sports diplomacy has grown in international relations. Around the turn of the 21st century, several governments are using sports diplomacy, a new form of public diplomacy.
Nowadays, sports diplomacy includes sponsoring tournaments and creating programs, documentation, and institutions to manage these efforts. The U.S. Department of State’s Sports Diplomacy Division engages youth worldwide via sports. In 2019, Australia launched “Sports Diplomacy 2030” to boost national appeal.
Hence, governments use sport to promote national interests and identity. Nowadays, we may discuss a completely new diplomatic orientation with its own methods, processes, and capacity to promote multilateral and bilateral interaction between countries. It is now a defined academic phrase in public diplomacy.