And it is goal by….Minister of Foreign Affairs

How diplomacy deals with sports?

There is so many discussion about anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy, but Tim Boggan(table tennis player and historian) believes that the value of tennis matches, which are believed to have begun a thaw in relations between America and China is greatly exaggerated. (Boggan). Are relations between sports and diplomacy really positive or they just mess up existing regimes?

Modern sport can be characterized by diverse international sports contacts. In the practice of international sport contacts firmly established system of long-run bilateral and multilateral agreements, which helps to make the processes of international integration in sport controlled and planned. (Gautrat) Repeatedly sport helped to build a bridge of mutual understanding, cooperation and goodwill, to establish or to support cultural and political ties and friendly relations among nations and peoples in terms of confrontation. The travelling of sports delegations abroad is used for tying or strengthening diplomatic relations between the countries. (Hillel) A classic example is a trip to China by the American table tennis team in 1971, which was the prelude to diplomatic contacts between the two countries. A similar action undertaken by China in 1972 to restore the economic and diplomatic relations with Japan, China invited women's volleyball team of Japan. Аs a result of these events the political lexicon includes such terms as "ping-pong", "rugby", "volleyball” and other sports diplomacy. (Chapman)

Sport is related to complex of symbolic models, meanings and values. Particularly it is important that the sports competitions demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of the model of peaceful competition that opposes inhumane form of rivalry, which is associated with the use of weapons, i.e. war. (Gautrat)Thus, sports serves as a "symbol of peace”, "symbol of peaceful competition among nations in terms of mutual understanding." Sports model competition is also a symbolic model of peaceful international cooperation regardless the continued existence of a conflict, as well as a symbolic model of humane conflict resolution and conflict limitations. (Denis)

At the same time, every sport involves competition. Therefore legitimate question arises: Does not the competitive nature of international sport prevent its humanistic role in international relations, and how the process of internationalization of sport contributes to the implementation of such fundamental human values of contemporary culture in the field of peace, friendship, mutual understanding and mutual respect? (Kurilov and Stolyarov)

Although the Olympic history gives a lot of examples of strengthening friendly ties between the athletes, this is not proof that the greatly increased mutual understanding between the nations of the world. Moreover there are many other facts (water polo match between Hungary and the USSR at the Olympic games in Melbourne, the "football" war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969), when sporting events contributed to aggravate international conflicts. (Seppanen). In justifying the negative assessment of international sporting events including the Olympics, scholars refer to the fact that they are being used for political purposes, promoting nationalism, chauvinism or xenophobia. (Foltz, 1981; Schmidt, 1976; Strenk, 1978; Toohey / Warning, 1981; Vayrynen, 1984 and others). (Kurilov and Stolyarov)

To obtain positive effects it is also important that countries have ready background for cooperation. Аs example from recent news - Indian and Pakistani prime ministers jointly were watching cricket match, that local media called "cricket diplomacy", which promises dramatic improvement in relations between the two countries. But as the lesson from history of the Armenian-Turkish relations shows - these countries already have already tried 3 years ago to establish peace on soccer fields - sports diplomacy does not work without objective reasons. The next day Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a new round of cooperation in investigating terrorist attacks in Mumbai - "Indian 9/11". Bombing in Mumbai in 2008 - not just a black day in the history of India, but also a strong irritant to relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. The fact that traces of the terrorists who killed scores of civilians in Mumbai, are in Pakistan. But the country is in no hurry to cooperate with the Indian investigation. (Kruchkov)

In 2008, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, desiring to get resuming diplomatic relations after the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh from Turkey, invited President Abdullah Gül to a soccer match in Yerevan. Next year, Sargsyan visited the match in Ankara. After both games politicians were talking about the possibility of signing a treaty on normalizing diplomatic relations and opening the borders. But despite the power of soccer to bring countries together, the treaty is not signed yet. Because the objective conditions to the Karabakh conflict has been settled does not exist. (Kruchkov)

International sports as a sociocultural phenomenon is rather contradictory. It is able to perform important cultural functions in international relations, acting as an "ambassador of peace" to help establish friendly relations between nations and peoples. (Merkel) However, it can give rise to nationalism and chauvinism, to act as a factor of the confrontation in international relations, rather than unite, divide different countries and nations. Practical implementation of the cultural potential of international sports and its real cultural value depend on a number of objective and subjective factors, primarily on the nature of the sport itself and on the system of social, political, economic and cultural relations of various countries in which it takes place (Livingston) (Kurilov and Stolyarov) (Gautrat)

Works Cited

Boggan, Tim. History of U.S. Table Tennis-PING-PONG ODDITY. Vol. V Part 1. 1999, n.d.

Chapman, William. Sports Exchanges Raise Hopes of Improved China-S. Korea Ties. Washington: The Washington Post, A23.

Denis, Oswald. The Fundamental Principles of Olympism. Vol. XXVI. Olympic Review, 1999.

Gautrat, Patrick. Sport in International Relations/ Le Sport dans les relations internationales. Vol. 97. France: Revue francaise d'administration publique, 2001.

Hillel, Ruskin. Reflections on sport, violence and fair play towards the 21st century. Athens, 1999.

Kruchkov, Igor. Useless sport diplomacy. Moscow: Moscow News, 2011.

Kurilov and Stolyarov. The problem of socio-cultural values of international sports. Trans. translated. Moscow: Collection of scientific works of young scientists and students RGAFK, 2000.

Livingston, Kristen. The Power of Sport: Should sport and diplomacy mix? Exchange. The journal of public diplomacy. Syracuse University, n.d.

Merkel, Udo. The Politics of Sport Diplomacy and Reunification in Divided Korea: One Nation, Two Countries and Three flags. London: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 2008.

Seppanen, P. The Olympics: A Sociological Perspective. Vol. 1998. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 1984.