The EU has been applying pressure on Ukraine, with some European leaders announcing a boycott of the upcoming Euro 2012 soccer tournament in Ukraine and others pulling out of a summit of Central and Eastern European leaders scheduled to take place in Ukraine later this month.

Sports diplomacy builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power,” which embraces the full range of diplomatic tools – in this case the game of basketball – to bring people together to foster greater understanding.

The Al Khalifa family...hoped the race would reverse its public diplomacy fortunes and once again depict the Kingdom as a progressive (in relative terms of course) financial, cultural and sports center. It tried to put to replace the images of political repression from a year ago. Instead, it only updated them.

Then the question is going to come up, people said this is sport and not politics, but everyone knows the sport is part of any public diplomacy program that any country takes these days, especially like the Olympics - the UK is going to benefit from the Olympics to promote the culture, the politics, what have you.

The Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power,” which embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools – in this case, the game of soccer – to bring people together and foster understanding.

President Ma Ying-jeou returns to Taiwan today after concluding his first Africa visit to three diplomatic allies, where he downgraded his state visits

Evan Lysacek, the 2010 Olympic gold medalist in men’s figure skating was recently named as a sports envoy for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs department. He just concluded a whirlwind visit to Stockholm, Sweden, and Minsk, Belarus.

President Ma Ying-jeou has successfully added a new dimension to his state visit to African allies with “sport diplomacy” that will further cement bilateral relationships..While in The Gambia, President Ma faced down another sports challenge...leading Taiwan past The Gambia 4-3 in a soccer penalty kick shootout at a local junior high school built with financial aid from Taiwan.