Introduction: Exploring the War-Peace-Sport Nexus

This introductory chapter sets out to explore some aspects of the complex, overlapping relations of war, peace and sport. It begins with a series of considerations drawn from anthropologists, cultural theorists, and historians concerning the nature of the war-peace-sport nexus, as the authors term it. From there, the authors explore some of its historic roots, emphasising the leading role of the nineteenth century in the forging of this association. It thus considers how sport was mobilized in the development of martial masculinity and became a way of preparing young male bodies and minds for combat. It goes on to consider how sport almost simultaneously was promoted as the antithesis of war and as a peaceable, mutually beneficial contact zone between cultures and individuals, epitomized, for example, in the thinking of the International Olympic Committee. It then touches on the role sport now plays in post-conflict situations, as well as for humanitarian and social development projects, under the banner of ‘sport, development and peace’. It concludes with an introduction to the individual case studies that make up this volume.