Sport as Soft Power: Development, Geopolitics, and Cultural Exchange

Sport and active living have long served as powerful arenas of cultural expression, political symbolism, and international negotiation. Beyond competition, sport has consistently mirrored and shaped the world’s social and geopolitical order. From Cold War Olympic rivalries to the contemporary diplomacy of mega-events such as Qatar’s FIFA World Cup and China’s stadium-building along the Belt and Road, sport continues to operate as a form of soft power that reflects national ambition and global hierarchy. Its entanglement with development—through infrastructure investment, sport-for-development initiatives, and transnational athlete migration—further reveals how deeply sport is embedded in globalization, postcolonial reconstruction, and cultural exchange. Yet despite growing public and institutional interest, critical inquiry into the historical, cultural, and ethical dimensions of sport’s global power remains limited, leaving open questions about inequality, heritage, and collective memory within sporting systems.This Research Topic advances an interdisciplinary understanding of sport as a dynamic form of soft power grounded in history, culture, and lived experience. It examines how sporting practices, institutions, and narratives have served as instruments of diplomacy, development, and identity formation, both historically and today. Drawing together history, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies, it asks how governments, NGOs, and international bodies frame and deploy sport as a tool of influence—and how communities interpret, negotiate, or resist that influence. The aim is a historically grounded, culturally attuned account of sport as a driver of social and political change.To deepen insight into the historical and cultural foundations of sport as a force for global connection and power, we welcome contributions on themes including, but not limited to:• Historical trajectories of sport as a diplomatic and cultural instrument• Legacies of mega-events and their imprint on urban and cultural memory• Stadium infrastructures and their historical role in state-building and nation branding• Oral histories of athlete migration, identity, and transnational mobility• Sport-for-development programs and the diplomacy of cultural exchange• Decolonization and the restructuring of global sporting institutions• Intersections of gender, race, and representation in sporting histories• Cultural diplomacy and soft power in Olympic, colonial, and postcolonial contexts• The role of museums, media, and public narratives in shaping collective memory around sportArticle types: Original Research, Review, Perspective, Policy and Practice Reviews, and Case Reports are all welcome. Topic editors: Hwayong Son, NICO BORTOLETTO Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83667/sport-as-soft-power-development-geopolitics-and-cultural-exchange