Sports in Healing International Relations

What may be considered the “traditional” type of diplomacy is that which involves state representatives from (conflicting) nations meeting one another and discussing potential solutions. However, other types of diplomacy have emerged in recent history, one being sports diplomacy--the use of sports in fostering international relations. Though sports appear to have merit in healing international relations, their potential may be largely based on speculation; there are few concrete examples of sports being successfully used for this purpose. Additionally, sports can even lead nations in the opposite direction of progress, exacerbating tensions between them. This conclusion is arrived at through the exploration of various examples of sports diplomacy, within situations ranging from the Cold War to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.