Examines the shaping of sports by both the fascist and communist institutions of Europe during the interwar period. It shows how sports were used as an instrument of propaganda and psychological pressure by major political and sporting nations.

The contributors to this collection argue that sport remains an understudied aspect of international relations, and that the growth of its importance should be seen in the complex interdependencies and global systems of governance.

Exploring the role and significance of sport in international politics, this volume discusses issues including the impact of international organizations on domestic sport policy. It focuses on an analysis of the global infrastructure of sport and the significance of international sports events.

Sports have historically been part of a broader quest of regimes for prestige on the world stage, but also to project hegemony and power in an anarchic international system. While such historical trends of politicization of sports continue—witness the nationalism on display at each Olympic Games—today sports are equally seen as a strategic key for advancing human rights, building peace, strengthening social cohesion, and fostering development. International sports reside between a “realist” world of power and profit while simultaneously becoming an instrument of liberal internationalism that sees the advancement of individual values of rights, gender equality, and empowerment of often marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples, traumatized war victims, and those with disabilities. Sports in International Politics explores the complex linkages among power politics in the international arena, the profit-seeking, often elitist and at-times corrupt world of professional international sports, and the promise for harnessing sports to promote human rights, inclusive development, and sustainable peace in a violent world. Timothy D. Sisk shows that sport’s direct relationship to peace is found in sport- and play-related contributions to humanitarian action, expanding the right to access sport and the rights of athletes of all ages and abilities, and in the well-designed employment of sports in youth-based development and peacebuilding programs and projects. Sport’s contribution to peace is found from the bottom up through sport’s contribution to positive youth development, empathy, and fairness, and through engendering trust and social cohesion at community and national levels.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest civil rights organization, having dedicated itself to the fight for racial equality since 1909. While the group helped achieve substantial victories in the courtroom, the struggle for civil rights extended beyond gaining political support. It also required changing social attitudes. The NAACP thus worked to alter existing prejudices through the production of art that countered racist depictions of African Americans, focusing its efforts not only on changing the attitudes of the white middle class but also on encouraging racial pride and a sense of identity in the black community. Art for Equality explores an important and little-studied side of the NAACP's activism in the cultural realm. In openly supporting African American artists, writers, and musicians in their creative endeavors, the organization aimed to change the way the public viewed the black community. By overcoming stereotypes and the belief of the majority that African Americans were physically, intellectually, and morally inferior to whites, the NAACP believed it could begin to defeat racism. Illuminating important protests, from the fight against the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation to the production of anti-lynching art during the Harlem Renaissance, this insightful volume examines the successes and failures of the NAACP's cultural campaign from 1910 to the 1960s. Exploring the roles of gender and class in shaping the association's patronage of the arts, Art for Equality offers an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural climate during a time of radical change in America.

Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this timely volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. Eleven chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating "Western" culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where struggles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped. Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East draws on academic disciplines from the humanities and social sciences to offer in-depth, theoretically grounded, and richly empirical case studies. It employs diverse research methodologies, from ethnography and in-depth interviews to archival research, to make a lasting contribution to this critical subject.

Sociology and history of sport is a fast rising subject. There is a growing interest in issues associated with globalization and sport culture across European and North American boundaries. This book fills an important gap. At the forefront of new areas of research in sport studies, it deals with a significant historical period systematically and, above all, internationally. Brought together in a single volume, this work examines the shaping of sport both by the fascist and communist institutions of Europe during the interwar period. It shows how sport was used as an instrument of propaganda and psychological pressure by major political and sporting nations as well as international movements such as the Catholic Church and the International Worker Sport Movement. This volume will be a key reference for researchers and students in sports history, sports sociology, politics and European studies.