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the global market.
Conversely, the bad behavior of sports stars can tarnish
a country’s soft power. Lance
Armstrong’s admission to drug
use and the suspension of Yankee
Alex Rodriguez for using performance-enhancing drugs did not
improve America’s image abroad.
The refusal of the owner of the
Washington Redskins football
team to change its name and the
racist sentiments expressed by
Donald Sterling, owner of the
LA Clippers basketball team,
reminded a globalized audience
that the US still struggles with its
racial heritage. Hooliganism and
racist incidents at soccer matches
in Italy and France similarly deIn 2008, Beijing hosted the 29th edition of the Summer Olympics. China used the
tract from these countries’ soft
opportunity of hosting the event to change its image from Tiannamen Square
tragedy to national celebration during the opening ceremony.
power.
The intrinsic nature of
Rugby Cup in 2011 to redefine New Zealand as a diverse,
sports and its ability to focus attention on an individual and
multi-racial country which prides itself on high tech inhis or her nation has lent it its far-reaching implications
novation and green products. Kiwi diplomats promote
in diplomacy. As seen above, these implications can either
the playing of rugby in other countries, especially among
enhance or detract from a nation’s international image.
children of color, and proudly display photos of the All-
Selling The National Brand
In the post-Cold War era, sport has become globalized, wedded to global commercial interests that promote
the national brand as well as the bottom line.
While lecturing for the State Department in China in
the late 90s, I would ask students who they thought was
the most popular American. An overwhelming number
of students named Michael Jordan, whose iconic picture
on Nike ads adorned the walls of Chinese restaurants and
shops. Today, Kobe Bryant and Jeremy Lin are global
superstars in China and in the rest of Asia and whose
games are broadcast live in China, Korea, Taiwan and
the Philippines. The first Chinese star to make it in the
NBA was Yao Ming, hailed by President Bill Clinton as “a
symbol of China’s turning from an inward-looking nation
to an outward-looking nation.” The NBA has opened
the Yao Ming Center in Beijing to help develop Chinese
players. An estimated 300 million Chinese play basketball, making it the country’s most popular sport. China
has created a largely privately owned basketball league,
the CBA, intended to rival the NBA, but it is riven with
corruption, mismanagement, and a lack of international
quality players. Vladimir Putin is pushing the expansion
of the Kontinental Hockey League, aspiring to surpass
the NHL.
An increasing number of countries are employing
sports as part of their public diplomacy efforts. New
Zealand embraces Rugby Diplomacy through its national
team, the All-Blacks. It used the hosting of the World
56
Blacks doing the Haka, the Maori war dance. With strong
support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US
State Department expanded its Sports Envoy program,
sending American athletes – in particular, women, disabled
athletes and players of color – on public diplomacy tours.
In a series of moves to expand sports’ role and those who
participate in them, Mrs. Clinton sent Laker great Kareem
Abdul Jabbar to Brazil as a US sports ambassador.
Beginning in 1932 and revived after WWII, Israel has
hosted the Maccabiah Games—the “Jewish Olympics”—
where Jewish athletes (and also Israeli Arabs) compete
every four years in Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv. In
2013, more than 9000 athletes from 78 countries participated, making the games the third largest sporting event in
the world. One of the medal winners was Kera Bartlett, a
graduate of Occidental and my former diplomacy student,
who won a Bronze in the pole vault.
Canada and Norway, as middle powers, have also embraced sports as part of their diplomatic tool kits. Canada
has, not surprisingly, practiced hockey diplomacy, sending
teams to play in China. Norway hosts an annual goodwill
soccer tournament for international youth teams, and
the Norwegian Development Agency has funded “Kicking Aids Out” as an effort use soccer to promote AIDS
awareness in Africa.
In a globalized world, sport is a vital part of almost
every country’s soft power. It can increase national pride,
spread national influence, and serve as a useful tool of
public diplomacy, encouraging communication and international understanding.
H A R V A R D I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E V I E W • Summer 2014
Photo Courtesy Reuters