Diplomatic actors in the world of football: individuals, institutions, ideologies*

This chapter considers the ways in which selected perspectives from the new public diplomacy, as well as established forms of diplomatic study of both state and non-state actors, can illuminate and enhance an understanding of the history and growth of the governing body of world football and the "continental" confederations recognized by FIFA. In turn, it reflect on the ways in which a rigorous study of sporting institutions such as FIFA can contribute to an understanding of the crossover between sport development, sport governance and related forms of diplomacy. A new analysis of the cultural and political dynamics of the developments of FIFA’s regional bodues warrants a forensic approach to the analysis of the historical phases of the confederations emergence. The chapter therefore considers the cases of the formative years of CONCACAF and OCEANIA, small players initially in global football politics but by 2016 providing 52 full members of FIFA, almost a quarter of the powerbrokers making up the 209 members of its Congress. In conclusion, the generally unacknowledged contribution of sport governing bodies to forms of diplomatic practice and relations is reconsidered, in the comparative light of other studies within the book, and the detailed consideration in this chapter of the selected phase of FIFA and confederation development.

Post-match recovery and analysis: concluding thoughts on sport and diplomacy

This concluding chapter draws together the themes that have emerged in the volume and provides an overarching analysis of the three sections concerning the concepts and history of Sport and Diplomacy, its relationship to public diplomacy and soft power, and considerations of boycotts. Furthermore, it considers a range of questions which simultaneously consolidate but also challenge the parameters of the field. These include the validity of sport as a ‘site of diplomacy’, the value of spatial and temporal dimensions to the field, and lines of future research.

‘They used Americana, all painted and polished, to make the enormous impression they did’: selling the Reagan revolution through the 1984 Olympic Games1

The chapter aims at investigating the role of the Reagan administration in organizing the Games. Contrary to previous understanding, which tend to dismiss federal government involvment in the organization of the Games, it will highlight the political and diplomatic actions undertaken by the Reagan administration to organize a perfect edition of the Olympics and to sell the world reaganism through the Los Angeles Games. Since the creation of an Olympic task force within the White House, the Los Angeles Games were perceived as a showcase on Ronald Reagan's America. The task force immediately concluded that the federal government would act behind the scenes, providing all the necessary security measures for the LAOOC and the Games, coordinating diplomatic actions and looking over consular practices. Tasks increased when the Soviets announced their boycott: the White House defined a clear damage-limiting strategy. In its conclusions, the chapter will discuss a sort of paradox: the Reagan administration was increasingly involved in the promotion of what it presented as a government-free edition of the Olympics.

‘Chinese rings’: the United States, the two Chinas and the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics

This chapter examines the inter-relationship of sport and diplomacy with specific reference to the 1960 Winter Olympic Games (held in Squaw Valley, California). More specifically, it evaluates State Department involvement in the ongoing issue of the recognition of the “Two China’s” during the Cold War, with specific reference to international sport. Despite long-standing official non-involvement in international sporting matters, hosting the 1960 Games focussed US diplomatic attention on the opportunities and problems presented by the Olympics within the wider Cold War. Crucially, the State Department extended considerable behind-the-scenes efforts both before and during the Squaw Valley Games in an attempt ensure Nationalist Chinese participation. Overall, this chapter will demonstrate that despite claims of non-involvement, the State Department specifically utilised international sport – and particularly the Olympics – as a tool of diplomacy during the Cold War. This was drawn into particularly sharp focus when the Games were being hosted on American soil, as they were in Squaw Valley in 1960.

Boycotts and diplomacy: when the talking stops*

According to the IOC and FIFA, the independence of sport is one of the most sacrosanct principles. Proclaimed in the Olympic and FIFA Charters, the “autonomy” of sport has to be protected and preserved. Yet, in light of the financial dimension alone of sport, its separation from politics is in reality a myth. social stakes, sport has become a classic field of intervention for politics. In this light sport may be seen as an ideal way to sanction or punish a State that is considered unacceptable. The sports boycott then becomes a diplomatic tool to be wielded alongside other political tools. The chapter presents an conceptual understanding of boycotts and their place in global diplomacy as well as familiar examples of from the Cold War and more recently.

Contesting independence: colonial cultures of sport and diplomacy in Afghanistan, 1919–49

In 1919, Afghanistan won its independence from British suzerainty. In each subsequent year, the state celebrated the event by staging military parades, organising cultural programmes – and sporting competitions. This chapter considers the independence games from the perspective of British diplomats in Afghanistan who also took part in the contests. In particular, the chapter studies the reports written by British diplomats on the games and explores how notions of fair play and athleticism were projected on the independent state of Afghanistan. The chapter asks if these reports are indicative of larger political and/or colonial ambitions. Complicating conventional assumptions on the primacy of the political in diplomatic relations, this chapter suggests that the physical encounter constituted a central feature in British-Afghan relations.

Can sport contribute to the mission success of military peace support operations?

In this exploratory article, the authors investigate if and how sport may be used as a tool to advance Peace Support Operations’ (PSO) success. This is done based on a review of existing literature both in the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) and PSO fields, as well as information on relevant activities going on “in the field” and a first round of interviews with Colombian and German officers. The authors start with an examination of sport as a tool for peace-building and the nexus between sport and the military. Outlining the characteristics and challenges of today’s complex PSO’s, they identify docking points and ways of how sport may be used to mitigate those challenges. The authors focus on four areas: multinational military-military cooperation, international civil-military interaction and PSO’s relations with the local population and the local authorities and armed forces. Acknowledging some restraints due to the nature of these operations’ constellations and dynamics, they propose six preliminary models for the use of sport to support mission success and encourage academia, the military and SDP practitioners to look further into the field.

Decentring US sports diplomacy: the 1980 Moscow boycott through contemporary Asian–African perspectives*

The chapter reevaluates the 1980 boycott of the Moscow summer games, challenging the conventional wisdom that that boycott was a failure. Historians of sport and diplomacy have usually studied the 1980 boycott through the strained efforts of US President Jimmy Carter’s Administration’s clumsy struggles to rally NATO allies, Australia, and traditional Olympic sporting powers into not going to Moscow in retaliation for the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In fact, American sports diplomacy might be judged differently when seen from the perspectives of non-Western and non-sporting nations, particularly in Africa and Asia. Using media and governmental primary sources from a variety of nations. More precisely, engagement in the boycott suited nationalistic purpose as perceived in 1980. “Carter’s boycott” was effectively localized/nationalized, if outside Carter’s stated aim of making the Soviets pay a price for their aggression in Afghanistan. Rather than reading the 1980 boycott through the lens of the Soviet invasion and the beginnings of the Second Cold War, contemporary non-Western perspectives on the boycott showed a wide breath of positive interpretations/results from Olympic nonparticipation– ranging from public display of governmental fiscal austerity by corrupt regimes, to support for a growing pan-Islamic movement, to enforcing authoritarian rule at home.

The governance of sport in deeply divided societies: actors and institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Northern Ireland

This chapter seeks to address the question of how is sport governed in societies that are deeply divided along ethnic, religious or other lines? The chapter focuses on three case studies: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Northern Ireland. It argues that in each of these cases, the institutions that have been employed in order to manage relations between groups in the governance of sport are more integrative than those that have been employed at the broader political level, where accommodation or outright division are the norm. The chapter explores the nature of these institutions and examines the role of a range of actors involved in their establishment. In particular, the chapter highlights the rhetorical impact that claims about the unifying experience of sport have on relevant actors' perceptions of how it should be governed, but also questions whether the integrative approach taken in the three case studies is part of a deliberate conflict management strategy or whether it is instead simply a product of the more technocratic concerns of international and regional governing bodies.

Football, diplomacy and Australia in the Asian century

As a settler-colonial nation in the southern hemisphere, Australia’s geo-political positioning is consistently questioned. Australia’s relationship with Asia has become especially significant following substantial levels of Asian migration since the Vietnam War, and the increased economic importance to Australia of, successively, Japan, China and, potentially, of Indonesia and India. Sport, among other cultural forms, has been championed as a promising domain of diplomacy (broadly defined as encompassing political, economic, social and cultural exchange in both formal and informal environments). The opportunities for ‘football diplomacy’ are greatly enhanced when a common continental or regional governance structure allows Australia to be defined as an Asian sporting nation and so to host and participate in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Here, as in all sporting events, nations engage in overt competition, but this re-positioning of Australia for a sporting purpose is symbolically unifying, and may signify a new mode of integration and collective identification that situates Australia within Asia in the Asian century. This chapter divines lessons from this case study that may apply in informative and useful ways to the wider analytical field of sport and diplomacy.