The (Soft) Power of Sports
The 2023 World Baseball Classic closed with the thrilling victory of Japan over the United States. The matchup of the United States and Japan is reminiscent of a long history of cooperation through baseball. The success of building connections through sports has prompted a number of countries to form ministries or offices dedicated to sports diplomacy. On a trip to the Middle East last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “we use sports as a way of connecting people, connecting people to our country. Whenever I go around the world—whatever, again, our differences may be—sports brings us together.” The increasing popularity of sports diplomacy played out in embassies, international sports camps, and the Olympics begs the question: how successful has sports diplomacy been?
First, it is important to look at sports diplomacy as a type of public diplomacy. Public diplomacy is defined as an interactive dimension of diplomacy which is not only global in nature, but also involves a multitude of actors and networks. Public diplomacy is designed to foster trust and promote productive relationships while also advancing foreign policy goals. It is a type of soft power, where attraction rather than coercion or payments influences a state’s ability to achieve their diplomatic goals. Countries use their cultural assets or political values to attract others, and sports have become a primary way to do this. According to Ashleigh Huffman, the director of the sports diplomacy division of the U.S. State Department, “sports diplomacy is the best-kept secret in the State Department.”
Jonathan Grix, a professor of sports policy at Manchester Metropolitan University, outlines three ways in which sports can be used as part of public diplomacy. The first way is through the hosting of major international events, such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, or regional events, such as the Pan-American Games or Asian Games. By hosting, countries are able to present a curated image of themselves to the world. Second, sporting success can raise a country’s national profile. In the 1970s, East Germany used ‘diplomats in tracksuits’ to secure international recognition of their separate status from West Germany. Finally, states can use a combination of hosting major sporting events and achieving sports success: Grix posits that “major sporting events are essentially about power, exerting power, and showcasing your nation.”
Sports diplomacy has proven to successfully build relationships between nations and promote cultural exchange. Perhaps the most famous example is ping-pong diplomacy, where the U.S. ping pong team was invited to China in 1971. The friendly competition between the American and Chinese teams eased tensions between the two countries, and paved the way for Former President of the United States Richard Nixon’s trip to Beijing the following year. In 2006, Germany used the FIFA World Cup to present a new image of itself and promote change in how countries whose views of Germany were still coloured by WWI and WWII.
Turning to Japan, the diplomatic history between the United States and Japan has been influenced by baseball since the sport was introduced to Japan in the 1870s. One of the key moments in U.S.-Japan baseball history was American baseball player Babe Ruth’s 1934 eighteen-game tour of Japan. Ruth became a cultural diplomat, engaging with Japanese people, players, food, and culture. More than 450,000 people attended the games, with the U.S. Ambassador at the time saying, “I told Babe Ruth while he was here, there were two American Ambassadors to Japan, he and I. Certainly he [...] did an immense amount of good towards the development of Japanese-American friendship.” Ruth’s statue still stands in the Sendai Zoo, a monument paying homage to the place where his first home run landed in Japan. After WWII, American General Douglas MacArthur oversaw the post war occupation and rebuilding of Japan. To combat the anti-American sentiment in the country, he recruited former Major League Baseball star Lefty O’Doul, who previously helped launch a Japanese professional baseball league in 1936. On O’Doul’s 10-game tour, 500,000 fans showed up to watch, and today, O’Doul is one of only three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball served as a healing mechanism for U.S.-Japanese relations after World War II, and the sports relationship continues today.
While sports diplomacy can promote intercultural understanding and cooperation, it has not always been a successful tool of public diplomac: the 2008 Beijing Olympics drew negative attention to Chinese human rights issues, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar did the same. Sports may also heighten nationalist sentiment and can ignite interstate rivalries, becoming “war by other means.” In 1972, when the United States played the Soviet Union in the Olympic men’s basketball final, controversy led to the U.S. team protesting the results and refusing to accept their silver medals. Additionally, the Olympic Games have faced boycotts, and major sporting events have served to hide geostrategic goals. In 2014, four days after hosting the Winter Olympics, Russia invaded Crimea. Similarly, Nazi Germany hosted the 1936 Summer and Winter Olympic Games three years before invading Poland. Countries have also used ‘sportswashing’ as a way to cover up negative human rights records. Returning to the example of Qater, critics point to how Qatar has hosted more than 600 international sporting events in recent years as an attempt to draw attention away from the country’s human rights abuse accusations.
While the relative successes and failures of sports diplomacy are up for debate, there is no doubt that this form of diplomacy has become a popular option for international actors. The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has a program explaining the use of sports in French economic and soft diplomatic policy: they see sports as a tool for promoting health and gender equity, structuring civil society, implementing development projects, and strengthening France’s position on the international stage. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has a sports diplomacy division that sends American athletes around the world, sets up sports camps among groups like Israeli and Palestinian children, and promotes leadership development through grassroots sports organisations. Whether operating on a major stage like the Olympics or promoting relations between two countries, sports diplomacy plays an increasing role in international politics. Huffman says that “sport is that universal language right? No matter where you go, you can roll out a ball and it just transcends differences. The programs, the exchanges, connect us through sport, tap into this shared universal language.”
Image courtesy of Peter Burgess via Flickr, 2012, some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
