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The Olympic Movement, under the leadership of the IOC, uses diplomacy to promote the fundamental principles of Olympism (see pages 11 and 12 of the Olympic Charter) and to contribute, through sport, to the promotion of peace, coexistence, tolerance and non-discrimination among countries, communities and ethnicities.

In order to facilitate your research and enable you to further explore this rich topic, we have compiled a list of the most relevant links and publications for you on this ZOOM IN page.

The first act of diplomacy within the Olympic Games was established in Ancient Greece in the 9^th century BC, with the creation of the truce, “Ekecheiria” – the signing of an international treaty which recognised the permanent immunity of the sanctuary of Olympia. The truce, now known as the Olympic Truce, allowed athletes and artists, and their families, to travel in safety to compete in or attend the Olympic Games, and return home afterwards.

During a conference to the society Le Parnasse, held in 1894 in Athens, Pierre de Coubertin declared that the Olympic Games “must give the youth of all the world a chance of a happy and brotherly encounter which will gradually efface the people’s ignorance of things which concern them all, an ignorance which feeds hatreds, accumulates misunderstandings and hurtles events along a barbarous path towards a merciless conflict”.

Despite a strong will to make the Olympic Games a powerful tool to support societal evolution, the Olympic Movement has developed against a backdrop of significant political, social, technological and economic change: two World Wars, the Cold War, the rise of new international powers, the emergence of new independent states, an increase in religious and ethnic conflicts, and more.

To face these changes, and in the name of the principle of universality of the Olympic Movement, the IOC has been the leader of multiple diplomatic initiatives, using the power of sport to promote understanding and collaboration. Some of the most prominent examples of this have been: the final agreement regarding the inclusion of both the Chinese and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committees in 1981; the active support for the creation of the Bosnian National Olympic Committee (NOC) after the war in Yugoslavia (the NOC’s statutes, contrary to usual practice, state that representatives of the three main communities take turns to cover the presidency during each term of office); promoting collaboration between countries with difficult diplomatic relations (South Korea and North Korea, Israel and Palestine, etc.); support for the reconstruction of the Iraqi NOC after the Iraq War in 2003; the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution to revive the Olympic Truce; and the creation of the Refugee Olympic Team, to avoid the discrimination of athletes forced to flee their country.  

The selected academic publications and articles below will allow you to gain a better understanding of the ins and outs of these and other examples.

Unfortunately, not every effort has been successful, as the IOC has faced several crises, such as the boycotts. This unsuccessful side of the Olympic diplomacy is also covered by a series of recommended publications and articles.

Please note that there are many more titles in our catalogue on Olympic Movement diplomacy and sports diplomacy. A link via which you can search for all related titles in our collection on this topic can be found at the bottom of the page.

Finally, you will also find a selection of links to several Olympic Movement initiatives that promote peace and social development through sport, as these two aspects regularly go hand in hand. If you’d like to know more, we invite you to visit our ZOOM IN page on development through sport.

Happy reading!