ABSTRACT
These Olympics’ examples amply show that sport addresses even bigger themes of international politics, security, and diplomacy; scholars have used these intersections to illuminate regional, national, and global relations in the world arena (Andrews and Carrington 2013; Beacom 2012; Levermore and Budd 2004). Commentators have mined a rich trove of archives that reveal the linkages. And historians, having spent a few decades delving into the importance of the pluralism garnered by transnational actors – people, movements, firms, and nongovernmental organisations – in shaping the global political environment, have also drawn on sport and sporting events as they analyse high politics, as well as the cultural, economic, and political interactions behind the headlines. The ample literature on sport and international politics also illustrates a reciprocal relationship, one that makes it hard to decipher the extent to which sport influences politics and vice versa.
