Special Issue: International Sports Organisations (original) (raw)

This special issue consists of five articles. The first one is by Nicola Sbetti and broaches the as yet hardly investigated case of Trieste, a territory divided between Italy and Yugoslavia after the Second World War that some authorities wanted to see recognised on the international stage. After taking into consideration the status of sport in international relations during those post-war years, the author examines how the IOC (International Olympic Committee), FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) faced this delicate question. In the second article, Heather Dichter addresses two events that created conflict within FIS (the International Ski Federation) in this first part of the Cold War: the arrival of East Germany at the beginning of the 1940s, and the non-participation of this country in the Alpine World Ski Championships in Chamonix in 1962. The author insists on certain States’ use of sport to fight against the other bloc. In that sense, the FIS is here perceived as a battleground for the two blocs, and Dichter’s contribution highlights that, despite apolitical discourses from the main sports leaders, in time of high tension on the international stage, the Cold War easily infiltrated the sports organisations’ arenas and tended to get the upper hand. The third article is the fruit of Georgia Cervin, Claire Nicolas, Sylvain Dufraisse, Anaïs Bohon and Grégory Quin’s collaboration. They seek to reveal through their analyses the first elements of governance of a still widely unknown institution (the FIG – Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique), whose protagonists, successful gymnasts and various competitions were largely affected by the Cold War. This contribution also aims to offer a ‘modern’ approach of institutional history, insisting on different aspects related to the structure and the governance of the organisation and on the manner through which its leaders have tried to neutralise the impact of the Cold War. Along the same lines, but exploring another facet of these organisations, Jürgen Mittag and Philippe Vonnard address the case of UEFA. By analysing the organisation’s official publications (the Bulletin officiel and the secretary’s report), in particular the vocabulary used, the subjects covered and the photographs published, the two authors highlight the way UEFA, an organisation involving countries coming from both blocs, wishes to appear as a panEuropean organisation. This contribution allows for a reflexion on the motivations of the Union’s main leaders and calls for future research to investigate the leaders’ incentives to engage in sport on an international level. By contrast, Florys Castan-Vicente deals with the case of an organisation that did not transcend the Cold War. The author broaches the case of a little known entity: the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW). Castan-Vicente explains the reasons behind this organisation’s creation and its first developments. Moreover, she shows that its first leaders were indeed motivated by the idea of creating international exchanges, but their anticommunism, without a doubt, prevented countries from the Eastern bloc from joining the organisation. In this sense, this entity highlights how cultural, scientific but also sports organisations were used as weapons by each bloc. These contributions have the advantage of presenting different situations and thus seriously prepare the ground for the topic of the Cold War’s influence on international organisations. Indeed, various grounds are dealt with in this issue, since the objects of study are international and European sports federations (Sbetti, Dichter, Cervin et al., Mittag and Vonnard) and a parastatal organisation (Castan-Vicente). In addition, the contributors also develop several approaches here, whether it be the manner the Cold War-related cases are negotiated within one (Dichter) or several federations (Sbetti); the development of an organisation’s governance despite a disadvantageous context (Cervin et al.); the organisation’s care to offer an image that aims to transcend this particular context (Mittag and Vonnard); or else the impossibility, or unwillingness, to overcome this context until the political setting allows it (Castan-Vicente).