Cuban Sports Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War Period: International Identity versus Domestic Realities

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 235-259
Author(s):  
Julie M. Bunck
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Sports Diplomacy ◽  
Sports Culture ◽  
New Man ◽  
Leadership Changes ◽  
International Identity ◽  
Mass Participation

Summary For many years an important segment of Cuba’s public diplomacy has focused on Cuban sports. The Cuban regime politicized sports policies and athletic triumphs and attempted to use them to enhance its international influence. This, in turn, reflected a key dimension of the Cuban revolution: the effort to alter pre-revolutionary culture by creating a ‘new man’. Mass participation in sports and the victories of elite athletes alike showed Cuban socialism in action. During the post-Cold War era, however, replete with difficulties for Marxist regimes, budget cuts, leadership changes, reordered priorities and the reintroduction of capitalism have adversely affected Cuban sports. Cubans today lack the access to first-rate facilities that they once enjoyed. Many athletes have defected, while the skills of trainers and coaches have been sold abroad. These developments have threatened Cuba’s revolutionary sports culture and undermined the effectiveness of its sports diplomacy. The Cuban example suggests that the efficacy of sports diplomacy is related not only to the quality of athletic performances but to the manner in which underlying cultural norms either support or detract from diplomatic endeavours.

scholarly journals Sports Diplomacy of Norway

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Marcin Kobierecki
Keyword(s):  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Sports Diplomacy ◽  
International Identity

Norway is perceived as a country with a clear international identity. The aim of the article is to investigate the sports diplomacy of Norway and to examine its influence on the international brand of this country. The author will define the term “sports diplomacy” and attempt to outline the strategy of Norway’s public diplomacy; an analysis of the methods used in Norwegian sports diplomacy will follow. The main hypothesis of this paper is that sports diplomacy only plays a subsidiary role in Norwegian nation branding.

Public Diplomacy during the Cold War: The Record and Its Implications

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Critchlow
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Public diplomacy in its many forms proved a great asset for the United States during the Cold War. A new book by Yale Richmond, a retired U.S. official who for many years was involved with policy toward the Soviet Union, including U.S. Soviet exchanges, highlights the importance of the “cultural” dimension of the Cold War. Richmond focuses on the U.S. side of the U.S. Soviet exchanges, but he also provides interesting comments about Soviet policy, drawing on newly declassified materials from the former Soviet archives. The exchanges, information programs, and other activities undertaken by the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State played a crucial role in spreading democratic ideas and values within the Soviet bloc. Candid and balanced broadcasts were far more effective than the heavy—handed propaganda that was used initially. The record of public diplomacy during the Cold War provides some important lessons for U.S. foreign policy makers in the post—Cold War world.

scholarly journals Brazilian Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antônio Carlos Lessa ◽  
Niels Søndergaard
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The North ◽  
The Republic ◽  
International Identity ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
International Engagement ◽  
High Degree

Brazilian foreign policy is internationally recognized, in comparative terms, for its stability, continuity, and a high degree of predictability, which can be observed throughout the different periods in which it has been categorized. The country’s international engagement from its independence in 1822 to the proclamation of the republic in 1889 was guided by a coherent behavioral pattern in liberal-conservative molds. In the subsequent period, which was initiated with the overthrow of the monarchy and extended until 1930, the interests that nurtured the country’s engagement abroad became strongly intertwined with those of the agro-exporting elite. With the hegemonic transition in this period, Brazil shifted from the British and toward the North American sphere of influence. The period that began in 1930 and extended to the end of the Cold War constituted a new model of international insertion. Within this model, the country’s international engagement assumed a supplementary character in relation to the national strategy for economic development, and its foreign policy thereby became conceived and formulated with a high degree of instrumentality as part of the aspirations for furthering the process of industrialization. Brazil’s adaption to the international post–Cold War context was a complex process, yet it is possible to detect a relatively homogenous strategy during these decades that informed the foreign engagement of governments marked by otherwise different ideologies. The growth of specialized academia from the 1990s on has spurred scientific production concerning international issues in general, and regarding foreign policy in particular. It is also important to emphasize the idea that the stability and coherence of Brazilian foreign policy is part of a narrative produced by both diplomats and scholars, and this has been reproduced intensively in the specialized literature over the years. This narrative facilitated the emergence of a certain notion of Brazilian foreign policy exceptionalism and the proposition of analytical axes that have been used in different traditions of foreign policy analysis to justify the notion of perenniality and continuity of the country’s international actions. It is possible to verify from this narrative the proposition that there are principles, ideas, and values that organize the strategies of international insertion and that give coherence to an international identity. It is important to emphasize that an important group of scholars has tried to problematize this question, discussing what would be the mythological nature of foreign policy in order to explain its continuity.

Vietnam's Post-Cold War Diplomacy and the U.S. Response

Asian Survey ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 832-847
Author(s):  
Allan E. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The U.S

China's Post-Cold War African Policy

Asian Survey ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 867-879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Payne ◽  
Cassandra R. Veney
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Post Cold War
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