ABSTRACT
Writing on the history of diplomacy is dominated by description of a move away from ‘old’ patterns of inter-state diplomatic activity and towards ‘new’ more complex forms that involve a range of state and non-state actors, generating a broader diplomatic agenda.1 In this context, international sport, involving a complex of non-state actors, is viewed as an increasingly appropriate subject of diplomatic discourse.2 Yet the evidence of diplomatic activity as it relates to the modern Olympic movement contrasts with such perceptions of the linear progression of sport from the periphery to the centre of the international agenda. There has rather been significant fluctuation in the level and nature of such activity, throughout the history of the modern Games. For example, British and American diplomatic activity surrounding the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was particularly intense when compared with a number of more recent Games.3 Furthermore, contrary to the view that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have only recently become players in international diplomacy, the diplomatic activities of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are evident as early as the 1920s.
