Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Sports
Conflict and sports will always intertwine as long as anyone can review their history, and conflict will always take place if sporting activities will continue taking place across the world. According to Smidt (2020), conflict and sports share numerous similarities, and in contemporary society, they are always center in any public perception. The essay reviews current sports conflicts in the public domain explicit in baseball, football, as well as Olympics games with the aim of exploring the cause of these conflicts, their magnitude, conflict resolutions as well as impacts of these conflicts in the United States. Although sports are no panacea for conflicts, they can play an essential role in building holistic peace strategies.
Current Benefits of Sports
The ability of sports events to reach large crowds as a given point of time is something very essential in the modern political environment. Moreover, using sporting channels as a means of social interaction can overly bring prosperity, unity, and harmony as well as bringing positive changes constructive work to advance the goals among the members affiliated to a particular view, state, or a geographical area (Smidt, 2020). For example, the United States national anthem, which gives Americans a sense of recognition of their national identity, which is currently played or performed for fans and players prior to every start of every single match, can highly boost the country’s unity. Initially, such acts were regarded as unnecessary and ordinary but now is common in every stadium, which provides a strong national identity parked with many advantages both locally and internationally.
Moreover, citizens continue to reinforce constructive patriotic movements such as the performance of the national anthem because of the conflicts and wars. Given the fact that conflicts are inevitable in sports, the county will be better positioned if they can win all the participants as sports conflicts and wars in any democratic country such as the United States are only fought well if the people have a well-reasoned mandate. Sports conflicts may involve a conflict between players, fans, coaching staff, other sporting entities, sports regulatory bodies, as well as between fans and players.
Institutional Policies in Olympics Sports Conflicts
Numerous studies account on the institutions that have tremendously reshaped the history of sports with much more new emergent of recent years with most of the academic works of literature in the history of sports focusing on the International Olympics Committee. Although the international Olympics committee is extensively significant in the contemporary world, more international high-performance sports have also been used to reshape policies and peoples out of the Olympic movement (Henning & Krieger, 2020). For example, national federations, international federations, and other non-governmental organizations are currently very powerful parkers in the realms of international sports.
In the current sporting environment, international federations serve as non-profitable organizations that oversee non-Olympics or Olympics sports in international settings. Generally, there are considered as one of the top essential stakeholders in both Olympics and non-Olympics settings as well as the international Olympic committee itself, organizing committees, and National Olympics committees for games. Krieger, Pieper, and Ritchie (2020) claim that the rights and obligations of each federation committee are outlined in the Olympic charter, which awards international federations with exclusive rights on governing specific sports. For example, the international swimming federation is mandated to oversee and resolute aquatic sports such as diving, artistic swimming, high diving, diving, swimming, open water swimming, and water polo.
According to Henning and Krieger (2020), the most common prevalent conflict in Olympic Games is in the fight against doping, which is one of the most essential yet least studied with organizations that have enacted the most impactful policies worldwide such as the council of Europe. Consequently, international federations are a very significant power structure in sports on resolving sports conflicts both within the sport and outside the sport. However, they are also differentials to the international Olympics committee, which has removed both baseball and softball from the Olympics games.
Sports Peace Building
While peacebuilding can take numerous divergent forms both at the community level and in the grassroots, over the recent weeks, sports activities are increasingly becoming one of the essential toolkits in peacebuilding. Whilst promoting unity and respect within and without the community, sports bring individuals together towards a common goal; consequently, by building a good relationship between individuals or a group of individuals, conflict and its adverse effects can be avoided (Bhide, 2020). As stated, sports can be extensively used to deter conflict by promoting ethical sportsmanship values, respect, teamwork, and the communication skills needed to prevent conflicts and reduce tensions.
According to a recent publication by the United Nations, taking part in sports is a fundamental human right and is crucial for the healthy development of kids. The publication claims that sports have the ability to reach a large number of individuals because of the massive audience capacity in sports events and the full range of sports to accommodate divergent views, cultures, and nationalities (Bhide, 2020). Sports events are all about inclusion, participation, and uniting people by pinpointing the commonalities between them. These events offer an avenue to learn new skills such as leadership, confidence, and discipline as well as cooperation, tolerance, and respect for others through positive interactions and fostered self-esteem.
Besides peacebuilding advantages, sports also have an affirmative contemporary implication on the health of participants. Diseases that are non-communicable such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, which are mainly caused by unhealthy diets and failure to perform physical exercises, which despite the fact that they are preventable, are on the rise. Therefore, incorporating sports into the education system can improve their attendance, achievements, and make the youth more knowledgeable about body conditions and diseases and eventually save them from health conflicts (Smidt, 2020). Sports can also enhance development in the manufacturing industry through the product of sporting events and sporting equipment and enlighten workforce capacity by teaching conflict resolution skills such as leadership and teamwork.
Sports Unifying Power
In any dividend country, sports activities are very unique and critical connecting tissues that bring people together from both within and across societies. However, as individuals think about the forums which unite them regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds, it is not possible to think of many that are as powerful as the stadiums they fill with cheering up their favorite players and teams, or maybe the grounds where they play together for exercise and pleasure (Melo, Van Rheenen & James Gammon, 2020). For example, the power of sports was manifested during the opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea when athletes from South and North Korea marched together and entered a combined women’s hockey team which is the most radical nature of reconciliation between the two nations for a decade. Therefore, individuals must learn from such extemporary incidences and find a way to use sports to bridge the gap dividing them.
Additionally, the world is a fractured place as there are numerous conflicts between nations across the globe, as well as conflicts with the nations and individuals who are siloed with others who share common beliefs and values. Nevertheless, throughout the sporting history, individuals with very little familiar believes and values team up on the neighboring pitches and filled stadiums as players and fans put those differences aside for the sake of their teams. Therefore, any discussion of the power of sports must include its necessity as a vehicle which teaches the youth the lessons of good leadership, fair play, good health, teamwork, continuous self-reliance as well as unity.
Conclusion
Conclusively, sports and sports events significantly resolve contemporary conflicts by initiating peacebuilding strategies in recent days. Moreover, this essay collectively illustrates the events of the current conflict in the modern world, the importance of sports regulatory bodies such as the international Olympics federations in shaping both current international and domestic sports. However, although most of the reviewed studies attribute the developments of the current sport in peacebuilding to the international Olympics committee, both the domestic and international federations also play a crucial part in sports developments. It is crucial to embrace the diversity of sports to build a society grounded on unity, peace, and harmony among the members and which is free from conflicts and war.
References
Bhide, A. (2020). Everyday violence and bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives by the urban poor in Mumbai. International Development Planning Review, 42(1), 57-71.
Henning, A., & Krieger, J. (2020). Dropping the Amateur: The International Association of Athletics Federations and the Turn Toward Professionalism. Sport History Review, 1(aop), 1-20.
Krieger, J., Pieper, L. P., & Ritchie, I. (2020). International Federations and National Governing Bodies: The Historical Development of Institutional Policies in Response to Challenging Issues in Sport. Sport History Review, 51(1), 1-6.
Melo, R., Van Rheenen, D., & James Gammon, S. (2020). Part I: nature sports: a unifying concept.
Smidt, H. M. (2020). United Nations peacekeeping locally: enabling conflict resolution, reducing communal violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 64(2-3), 344-372.