SPORT AS A TOOL OF PEACEBUILDING: EVALUATION OF EFFICIENCY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ARMED AGGRESSION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29038/2524-2679-2024-01-293-311Keywords:
sport, peacebuilding, peacemaking potential of sport, weaponization of sport, international sports institutions, the institution of the Olympic Truce, sports diplomacy, socio-political activism of athletes, warAbstract
The potential of the institution of sport as a tool of peacebuilding under the conditions of military conflicts between states is examined. The urgency of the problem is determined by: 1) insufficient study of the peacebuilding potential of sport under the conditions of aggression of some states against others; 2) upward dynamics of the use by democratic states of the institu- tional capacity of non-political social institutions, in particular – sports, as a soft power for peacebuilding and countering foreign policy aggression;
- strong politicization of the institution of sport by neo-authoritarian states and its transformation into one of the weapons (weaponization of sport). The purpose of the article is to clarify the potential of the institution of sport as a peacebuilding tool under the conditions of armed aggression of some states against The research objectives are: to reveal the potential of the institution of sport as a tool of peacebuilding; to analyse the institutional capacity of sport in the field of peacebuilding under war conditions (on the example of Russian aggression against Ukraine). The research methodo- logy is institutional and axiological analysis. The working hypotheses were verified about: the dependence of the implementation of the peacebuilding function by the sports institution on the characteristics of a specific conflict (severity, level of aggression, differences in the values of the opposing sides, etc.); the difference between the content of the peacebuilding function of the sports institution and the current stage of relations between the conflicting parties (open armed aggression, post-conflict restoration of relations, etc.). It is argued that at the stage of open aggression of some states against others and the stage of post-conflict, reconciliation, etc. the peacebuilding capabili- ties and tools of the sports institution are fundamentally different. It is noted that: 1) the state of war and armed aggression in interstate relations social- ly activate athletes and sports institutions of all sides of the confrontation;
2) both constructive (peacebuilding) and destructive (militant-propaganda) roles of the institution of sports are possible, which strictly depends on the type of political regime in the states that are parties to the conflict/war.
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