International Sports Diplomacy in Action – An Investigation of AUS+RALLY: An Australian Sports Diplomacy Campaign in Japan

Abstract

As exercised by the recent Tokyo 2020 Olympics and 2020 Paralympics, both delayed until 2021 due to COVID-19 conditions, sports diplomacy is shifting, from emergence as a concept, toward empirical legitimacy. Extant literature has allowed scholars to clearly establish the factors constituting sports diplomacy, which has culminated in the sports diplomacy model proposed by Abdi and colleagues. This study examines the sports diplomacy model through a qualitative investigation of an operational Australian sports diplomacy campaign, AUS+RALLY, within the context of Japan. The evident conformity of the extant sports diplomacy model with the AUS+RALLY campaign represents an important step for sports diplomacy scholarship, and the case utilised provides critical insights into the conduct of sports diplomacy activities and suggests enhancements to the extant sports diplomacy model.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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