Our 'Towards a Welsh sports diplomacy strategy; international perspectives' event followed on from the launch of our report: Towards a Welsh Sports Diplomacy Strategy research.
The latest online panel event focused on international policy and practice in the sports diplomacy area.
The event took its cues from the 2020 report, looking at how the report chimed with policy and practice in overseas nations and examining the activities of non-state sporting experts and organisations practicing sports diplomacy. We brought in international voices to look in turn at key areas that might encompass a sport diplomacy strategy, giving practical examples and an opportunity to discuss.
We heard about:
• A young nation embarking on a sports diplomacy approach, from Silvija Mitevska, Sports Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia.
• Advancing international engagement through Scottish sport, with Professor Grant Jarvie, the Chair of Sport and Founding Director of the Academy of Sport at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Jarvie spoke about using ‘sport as a tool box’ to achieve a variety of policy aims. He offered fresh perspectives on how sports diplomacy approaches could be applied more effectively to meet the challenges of a post Brexit and post Covid world.
• Australia’s Port Adelaide Football Club, who between 2015 and 2020 forged a successful partnership with Shanghai. Andrew Hunter, the club’s general manager at the time, explained how the State Government of South Australia, Federal Australian Government and Port Adelaide Football Club worked together to build bilateral ties through the prism of Australian Rules Football in the key overseas market of China.
You can watch the event above.