sports diplomacy
In a world in which diplomacy has expanded from government-to-government contacts into public and cultural diplomacy and in which nations are ranked as much on their performance in high-profile international tournaments as on other attributes, autocratic abuse of sports and its impact on soccer, including performance, is nowhere more prevalent than in the Middle East and North Africa.
Greg Louganis, U.S. Olympic diver and author, on 2/11 as he discussed his sports diplomacy role representing both the United States and the LGBT athlete community.
The tournament is one of the most important cultural events this country has ever staged. It is Australia's coming out as a member of Asia.
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has defended his decision to play golf in Hawaii with United States President Barack Obama at a time when his country was facing the worst flood in decades, calling it "golf diplomacy".
Although the Sochi Games were by many measures a success, any global afterglow quickly dimmed a few weeks later when Russia annexed more Black Sea property: the Crimea in neighboring Ukraine.
Some of these emerging diplomatic trends seem to have the potential to solve real problems, but can they really guarantee results or are they diplomatic fads that will go out of style as soon as the diplomatic community is faced with more complex challenges?
The U.S. Embassy Santiago along with the NBA and WNBA teamed up for an educational and sports diplomacy envoy in Chile.