Rethinking Diplomatic and Development Outcomes through Sport: Toward a Participatory Paradigm of Multi-Stakeholder Diplomacy

Sport diplomacy provides a challenging example of how diplomatic
practice is changing in light of a proliferation of actors,
agendas, and modes of communication. This context has
inspired greater interest in techniques for managing the participation
of others in the pursuit of desired outcomes, such as
debates surrounding multi-stakeholder diplomacy, public
diplomacy, and soft power. However, these debates often
derive from an instrumentalist perspective of exerting influence
and securing outcomes. Sport, on the other hand,
involves sites and practices capable of supporting communities
in the identification of their own goals, and of supporting the
development of strategies and skills that can achieve those
goals. Its participatory qualities challenge instrumentalist
approaches to diplomatic objective setting, and potentially
reveal some of the ways in which diplomacy can be more
diffuse and inclusive. This article uses the example of sport
diplomacy to question the basis for instrumentalist diplomatic
objective setting and to explore the theoretical basis for participatory
models of multi-stakeholder diplomacy.