The power of sports to legitimize a regime also means they have the power to delegitimize one, too.
Can Global Sports Boycotts Help End the War in Ukraine?
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Olympics
The Triumph and Tragedy of the Olympic Refugee Team
It’s beautiful that there’s an Olympic team for 82 million displaced people. But have we accepted mass displacement as the new normal?
Team Refugee and the Normalization of Mass Displacement
As refugees take the Olympic stage, the wars that sent them running for their lives continue apace.
Muhammad Ali Understood the Racist Roots of War and Militarism
And he called them out fearlessly.
Sochi Brought to Fore Not Just Russian Homophobia, But Islamophobia
Russia’s Olympic success and growth are meaningless if xenophobia continues to dominate its society.
Brazil’s World Cup Evictions: An Insult to Soccer
Forced evictions are happening throughout Brazil in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, exacerbating the country’s growing inequality.
Brazilians’ Demands: From Lower Bus Fares to a Fair Society
With a million people demonstrating in the streets of cities throughout Brazil, everyone’s scrambling to understand how a 20-cent bus fare hike turned into a social revolt.
A New Experiment in Open-Source Citizenship
Not long ago I received in the mail a slender envelope with international postage on the front. Inside was a small card-paper placard bearing my name, handwritten, confirming my citizenship in what is apparently the world’s newest nation – neither South Sudan nor Kosovo, of course, nor even a nascent Palestine, but rather nowhereisland. This decidedly more postmaterialist undertaking is the brainchild of British artist Alex Hartley.
Strategic Dialogue on the Beijing Olympics
In their contributions to the Foreign Policy In Focus strategic dialogue on the Beijing Olympics, James Nolt argues in Counterproductive Olympic Protests that protesters are not spurring change in China only an upsurge in patriotism. Eric Reeves, in On Boycotting the Beijing Olympics, makes a case for the international community to send a signal to China over its Sudan policy by boycotting the opening ceremonies. Here they respond to each other by focusing on the question of Darfur.
On Boycotting the Beijing Olympics
Recent events — in Darfur, in Tibet, in Burma, and within China — force an inevitable debate about the appropriate political and moral response to China’s hosting of the Summer 2008 Games, and in particular whether some form of boycott is warranted. Unfortunately, if predictably, there has been a good deal more heat than light generated by this debate, which too often reflects clashing axioms rather than informed argument. Since my own expertise lies in understanding Sudan, and in particular the ongoing genocide in Darfur, I’ll necessarily focus on this part of the debate. But few working on Sudan are unaware of the controversies associated with Chinese economic policy and human rights standards elsewhere in Africa.