Sport and International Relations: Qatari Soft Power and Foreign Policy Making
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Dec 2, 2021
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Sport plays a significant role in politics and international relations. However, the relationship between soft power and hosting a sports mega-event such as the Olympic Games, or the FIFA world cup is unclear. Most literature that has examined the role of sport in Qatari soft power adheres to the Realist School of international relations theory. It has tended to emphasize the size of the country in understanding what motivates its engagement in sports diplomacy. This paper attempts to move beyond this realist analysis of soft power by drawing on the post-structuralist –interpretive approach and discourse theory. This perspective better accounts for how sports diplomacy is used in different cultural contexts. In arguing that Qatar represents particular cultural and historical traditions, and sports define the country’s distinct political identity, the paper looks at how Qatar has exercised soft power through sports diplomacy and hosting major international sports events. The paper will analyze formal state discourses surrounding Qatar’s decision to host FIFA World Cup 2022, and we discuss how this use of sports diplomacy is helping achieve several Qatari foreign policy goals.
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Keywords
Foreign policyInternational RelationsSportSoft PowerDiscoursePolicies
References
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Mattern, Janice Bially, "Why ‘soft power' isn't so soft: representational force and the sociolinguistic construction of attraction in world politics." Millennium 33, no. 3 (2005).
Murray, Bill. Football: A history of the world game. Routledge, 1994.
Murray, Stuart. “Sports Diplomacy in the Australian Context: Theory into Strategy.” Politics & Policy 45, no. 5 (2017).
Norval, David R. Howarth Aletta J., Yannis Stavrakakis, and Avril Ehrlich. Discourse theory and political analysis: Identities, hegemonies and social change. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Nye, Joseph S. “Soft Power.” Foreign Policy, no. 80 (1990).
____. The future of power. Public Affairs, 2011.
Sayin, Yusef, Ates, Davut, “Poststructuralism and the analysis of international relations”. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 11, no. 2, (2012).
Scott R. Jedlicka, ‘Appropriated authority: a theory of transnational sport governance’, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 10:4, (2018).
Simpanen, Teppo-Tuomas, “Soft Power and the Social Construction of Collective Identity. Why Does the European Union Fail to Attract the British Public?” (BA Thesis, Malmö University, 2018).
Trunkos, Judit, Heere. Bob, "Sport diplomacy: A review of how sports can be used to improve international relationships." Case studies in sport diplomacy (2017).
Wang, Jian, ed. Soft power in China: Public diplomacy through communication. Springer, 2011.
Wolfe, Sven Daniel, “‘For the benefit of our nation’: unstable soft power in the 2018 men’s World Cup in Russia”, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12:4, (2020).
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Almaskati, Bader, “Qatar's Nation Branding Strategies: The Effectiveness of Soft Power.” (Master’s thesis, SOAS, 2014).
Arnaud, Pierre, and Jim Riordan, eds. Sport and international politics: Impact of Fascism and Communism on Sport. Routledge, 2013.
Bairner, Alan, John Kelly, and Jung Woo Lee, eds. Routledge handbook of sport and politics. Taylor & Francis, 2016.
Bale, John, and Mike Cronin, eds. Sport and postcolonialism. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).
Cerwyn Moore and Chris Farrand, International Relations Theory and Philosophy, (USA and Canada: Routledge, 2010).
Cornelissen, Scarlett. “The geopolitics of global aspiration: Sport mega-events and emerging powers.” The International Journal of the History of Sport 27, no. 16-18 (2010).
Fan Hong (ed.), Sport in the Middle East: Power, Politics, Ideology and Religion, 1-16. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017.
Griffin, Thomas Ross, "Football in the Hands of the Other: Qatar’s World Cup in the British Broadsheet Press’." Arab World Geographer 20, no. 2–3 (2017).
Griffin, Thomas Ross, "National identity, social legacy and Qatar 2022: the cultural ramifications of FIFA’s first Arab World Cup." Soccer & Society 20, no. 7-8 (2019).
Grix, Jonathan et al., Entering the Global Arena, 97-110. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore, 2019.
Grix, Jonathan, and Donna Lee, "Soft power, sports mega-events and emerging states: The lure of the politics of attraction." Global society 27, no. 4 (2013).
Grix, Jonathan, and Paul Michael Brannagan, “Of Mechanisms and Myths: Conceptualising States’ ‘Soft Power’ Strategies through Sports Mega-Events.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 27, no. 2 (2016):
Grix, Jonathan, Brannagan, P. M., & Houlihan, B., ‘Interrogating States’ Soft Power Strategies: A Case Study of Sports Mega-Events in Brazil and the UK;. Global Society, 29, no. 3. (2015).
Grix, Jonathan, Brannagan, Paul Michael, and Lee, Donna, “Qatar’s Global Sports Strategy: Soft Power and the 2022 World Cup.” Entering the Global Arena, 2019, 97–110.
Grix, Jonathan, Paul Michael Brannagan, and Barrie Houlihan, “Interrogating States’ Soft Power Strategies: A Case Study of Sports Mega-Events in Brazil and the UK.” Global Society 29, no. 3 (2015)
Gruneau, Richard S., Sport and Modernity. Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
Hansen, Lene. "A case for seduction? Evaluating the poststructuralist conceptualization of security." Cooperation and Conflict 32, no. 4 (1997).
Hayden, Craig, The Rhetoric of Soft Power: Public diplomacy in global contexts, Lexington Books, 2012.
Hong, Fan, (ed.) Sport in the Middle East: Power, Politics, Ideology and Religion. Routledge, 2017.
Houlihan, Barrie, Zheng, Jinming, “Small States: Sport and Politics at the Margin,” International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 7, no. 3 (2015).
Howarth, David J., Discourse, Open University Press, 2010.
John Bale and Mike Cronin (eds.), Sport and Post-colonialism, Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.
Khalidi, Rashid. The Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Koch, Natalie, "The Geopolitics of Gulf Sport Sponsorship." Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 14, no. 3 (2020).
Mattern, Janice Bially, "Why ‘soft power' isn't so soft: representational force and the sociolinguistic construction of attraction in world politics." Millennium 33, no. 3 (2005).
Murray, Bill. Football: A history of the world game. Routledge, 1994.
Murray, Stuart. “Sports Diplomacy in the Australian Context: Theory into Strategy.” Politics & Policy 45, no. 5 (2017).
Norval, David R. Howarth Aletta J., Yannis Stavrakakis, and Avril Ehrlich. Discourse theory and political analysis: Identities, hegemonies and social change. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Nye, Joseph S. “Soft Power.” Foreign Policy, no. 80 (1990).
____. The future of power. Public Affairs, 2011.
Sayin, Yusef, Ates, Davut, “Poststructuralism and the analysis of international relations”. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 11, no. 2, (2012).
Scott R. Jedlicka, ‘Appropriated authority: a theory of transnational sport governance’, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 10:4, (2018).
Simpanen, Teppo-Tuomas, “Soft Power and the Social Construction of Collective Identity. Why Does the European Union Fail to Attract the British Public?” (BA Thesis, Malmö University, 2018).
Trunkos, Judit, Heere. Bob, "Sport diplomacy: A review of how sports can be used to improve international relationships." Case studies in sport diplomacy (2017).
Wang, Jian, ed. Soft power in China: Public diplomacy through communication. Springer, 2011.
Wolfe, Sven Daniel, “‘For the benefit of our nation’: unstable soft power in the 2018 men’s World Cup in Russia”, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12:4, (2020).
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How to Cite
Al-Dosari, Noof. 2021. “Sport and International Relations: Qatari Soft Power and Foreign Policy Making”. Tajseer Journal 3 (2). https://doi.org/10.29117/tis.2021.0073.
Section
Articles in English