Sports Diplomacy. Michał Marcin Kobierecki
that have been made aim to contribute to the development of the emerging field of sports diplomacy, which as has been mentioned, in principle is practice oriented.
The book aims to investigate the role sport may play in states’ foreign policy and in international relations. On the theoretical level, it attempts to conceptualize the relation between sports diplomacy and public diplomacy. Apart from that, attention is dedicated to the objectives, such as how sport may be used, their effectiveness, typical forms of behavior. The main goal was to observe differences between various states using sport for diplomatic reasons. This applies both to the issue of using sport in fostering foreign policy goals by the example of international rapprochement and in shaping the international image of a state. The book argues that there are several determinants that affect the way states pursue sports diplomacy, such as assets at their disposal, political regimes, and external and internal circumstances. The study also refers to international sports organizations and their diplomatic subjectivity. The investigation looked for the reasons for their capability of engaging in the processes of negotiation, communication, and representation with other actors of international relations (by the example of relations with states as the primary subjects of diplomacy).
The fact that states are in the spotlight does not mean that other actors and their roles are not acknowledged. The research is by no means limited to the activities undertaken by governments. It includes grassroots initiatives of non-state actors that are not necessarily directed or coordinated by governments. It also includes international sports organizations assessed as diplomatic actors on their own. The effects of their activities are simply analyzed from the perspective of states and their interests, even when their governments remain passive. Similarly, the diplomatic subjectivity of international sports actors is investigated in principle in reference to their relations with states, for whom they serve as external public diplomacy stakeholders—they possess the assets that states may need to pursue their own public diplomacy.
A tripartite analytical framework is introduced in this book, with three levels of analysis of sports diplomacy. The first one assumed sports diplomacy as a means of shaping interstate relations, the second as a means of building international image and prestige of states, and the third as diplomatic activity of international sports subjects. The first two levels are based on teleological distinction with more particular goals in the first case, and more general ones in the second. Sports diplomacy as a means of shaping interstate relations, in general, includes various attempts to alter the state of relations with another country, both in the context of improving them or expressing negative attitudes (within this level positive and negative sports diplomacy may be distinguished). Image-building sports diplomacy, on the other hand, aims to generally enhance the way a state is perceived by the international public. It should be noted though that the distinction between these two levels has a normative character. Some of the activities undertaken within both of these categories are very similar, and one may claim that examples of sports diplomacy aimed at shaping interstate relations are also targeted at improving the international image of a state. It has been assumed that the sports diplomacy as a tool of shaping relations between states is associated with particular political goals which are easy to identify, such as rapprochement or breaking international isolations, whereas the image-building sports diplomacy has more general purposes. The third level of analysis—sports diplomacy as diplomatic activity of international sports subjects—was easier to distinguish since it refers to international sports governing bodies, the NGOs which cannot be attached to any territory or are controlled by any government, whereas the first two levels were ultimately connected with states, even though grassroots initiative pursued by non-state actors were also included.
Public diplomacy is the central category within this framework. As has been mentioned, in principle sports diplomacy is regarded as a category of public diplomacy. It should be noted though, that some of its forms exceed the scope of public diplomacy. For example, many of the sports diplomacy endeavors aimed at improving the way a country is perceived by the external public have the qualities typical for nation branding. Sports diplomacy can also be analyzed from the perspective of traditional diplomacy. This is particularly visible if ISOs’ involvement in international negotiations is considered. It should be also acknowledged that the research presented in this book is state-oriented. It does include analysis of non-state actors and their significance is acknowledged and accepted, but the states and their interests remained in the spotlight.
In the context of sports diplomacy as a tool of shaping interstate relations, the scope of the research was limited to so-called positive sports diplomacy (normatively assessed). Negative aspects such as sports boycott or sports isolation have been excluded from the investigation since the scholarly on such issues is already very rich, although they have not necessarily been investigated from the perspective of sports diplomacy. Attempts to use sport to deepen proximity between states have also been omitted. In history, such efforts were employed, for example, among countries belonging to the communist block or to integrate former colonies (e.g., Commonwealth Games, Jeux de la Francophonie). These aspects are connected with similar processes and mechanisms as the cases included in the research, so the author decided to investigate the issue on the example of situations in which sport was employed to bring hostile or estranged countries closer together.
The usefulness of sport in building an international image of a state was considered most of all in the context of the tools that can be employed. The goal was to identify methods of image-building sports diplomacy and to analyze what determines their selection by states which wish to improve the way the international public perceives them.
The third detailed research subject referred to the sort of diplomatic subjectivity of international sports organizations. Contemporary diplomacy is not perceived any more as an exclusive activity of states. The diffusion of diplomacy meant the emergence of non-state diplomatic actors, including nongovernmental organizations such as the IOC.23 That part of the book refers to the concept of sport as diplomacy proposed by Stuart Murray and Geoffrey Pigman which will be described in chapter 1. The primary attention was dedicated to the interactions between the IOC and states. Such activities of the committee were referred to as “diplomacy,” although the author is aware that it was to some extent a simplification.
The research presented in the book attempted to answer several research questions. They concerned the possibility of using sport in shaping interstate relations, situations in which sport may be useful in this respect and the specific qualities of such employment of sport by different states. The second group of research questions referred to the use of sport in image-building and concerned which methods can be used for this sake and what affects their selection by different types of countries. The research was also dedicated to answering whether international sports organizations can play the roles of diplomatic actors, how it can be indicated and what the reason for that is.
The book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter, entitled “Connotation of the Category ‘Sports Diplomacy’—From a Colloquial Overview to a Conceptualization Attempt,” is theoretical and refers to the inconsistency in defining the term sports diplomacy. This chapter discussed the evolution of the understanding of diplomacy with particular reference to its diffusion and the growing role of new actors, and to public diplomacy which apart from sports diplomacy is the main category of the research. The chapter also included extended conceptualization of sports diplomacy through confronting the most critical approaches in pursuit of developing a possibly consistent way of understanding the term. This chapter also referred to the issue of subjects of sports diplomacy. These considerations allowed for the presentation of three forms of perceiving the term which were described shortly and to which subsequent, more empirical chapters were dedicated.
chapter 2, entitled “Sports Diplomacy as an Activity for Shaping Positive Relations between States,” addresses the means of using sport by states to alter the relations with other countries, with the focus on attempts to improve bilateral relations between hostile or estranged states. The following cases have been included: ping-pong diplomacy between China and the United States, cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan, football diplomacy between Turkey and Armenia, track and field exchanges between the United States and the USSR, basketball