Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations Since 1945

"In Diplomatic Games, a team of international scholars examines how the nexus of sport and foreign relations has driven political and cultural change since 1945, demonstrating that governments have used athletic competition to maintain and strengthen alliances, promote politics, and increase national prestige. The contributors investigate topics such as China's use of sports to opposed Western imperialism, the ways in which sports helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, and the impact of the United States' 1980 Olympic boycott on U.S.-Soviet relations. Bringing together innovative scholarship from around the globe, this groundbreaking collection makes a compelling case for the utility of sport as a lens through which to view international relations."--Back cover

International sporting events, including the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, have experienced profound growth in popularity and significance since the mid-twentieth century. Sports often facilitate diplomacy, revealing common interests across borders and uniting groups of people who are otherwise divided by history, ethnicity, or politics. In many countries, popular athletes have become diplomatic envoys. Sport is an arena in which international conflict and compromise find expression, yet the impact of sports on foreign relations has not been widely studied by scholars.In Diplomatic Gam

Introduction : competing in the global arena : sport and foreign relations since 1945 / Andrew L. Johns -- "A game of political ice hockey" : NATO restrictions on East German sport travel in the aftermath of the Berlin Wall / Heather L. Dichter -- Steadfast friendship and brotherly help : the distinctive Soviet-East German sport relationship within the Socialist Bloc / Evelyn Mertin -- Welcoming the "third world" : Soviet sport diplomacy, developing nations, and the Olympic Games / Jenifer Parks -- Forging Africa-Caribbean solidarity within the Commonwealth? : sport and diplomacy during the antiapartheid campaign / Aviston D. Downes -- Peronism, international sport, and diplomacy / Cesar R. Torres -- A more flexible domination : Franco-African sport diplomacy during decolonization, 1945-1966 / Pascal Charitas -- The cold war games of a colonial Latin American nation : San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1966 / Antonio Sotomayor -- "Our way of life against theirs" : ice hockey and the cold war / John Soares -- "Fuzz kids" and "musclemen" : the US-Soviet basketball rivalry, 1958-1975 / Kevin B. Witherspoon -- The White House games : the Carter administration's efforts to establish an alternative to the Olympics / Nicholas Evan Sarantakes -- Reclaiming the slopes : sport and tourism in postwar Austria / Wanda Ellen Wakefield -- Politics first, competition second : sport and China's foreign diplomacy in the 1960s and 1970s / Fan Hong and Lu Zhouxiang -- Reds, revolutionaries, and racists : surfing, travel, and diplomacy in the Reagan era / Scott Laderman -- Conclusion : fields of dreams and diplomacy / Thomas W. Zeiler