ABSTRACT
This chapter constitutes the final application of traditional diplomatic characteristics to NSSAs. It applies negotiation, intelligence gathering and dissemination, and the minimisation of friction, the last three of Bull’s diplomatic functions, to a range of sporting actors. Once again, the discussion charts new terrain and encounters many curious yet logical networks, players and agents of sports diplomacy. The process of organising, running and profiting from a football World Cup, for example, can make political negotiation seem easy. The practice of secret sports diplomacy – spying, or gathering, concealing and disseminating sporting intelligence – takes on byzantine proportions in the rich, complex and competitive world of international sport. And, while nation-states produce and reproduce diplomatic estrangement, the same cannot be said of the international society of sport. Old and new media firms, retired NBA basketballers, North and South Korean Olympic athletes all build bridges between separate nations, change stereotypes and, ergo, minimise friction in international affairs. The three functions of diplomacy discussed in this chapter are not as obvious, glamourous, or sensible as representation or communication but they are important in terms of building a comprehensive framework encompassing all theoretical facets of sports diplomacy.
