Not Just a Game? Sport, Protest, and International Politics.

Major world sporting events are underexplored phenomena in the study of international politics. But they have often become focal points for political conflict, most recently in the high profile protests in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. This paper examines the origins and effects of political contestation at world sporting events over the past 30 years. In it, we ask: why do actors choose sporting events to voice political opposition? How often do such protests have an impact? And, more importantly, what are the mechanisms by which this impact is achieved? To answer these questions, we present a dataset of all large protests and boycotts at major international sporting events over the past half-century. We draw upon select cases ranging from the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to the Beijing protests both to explain variation in outcomes and to increase our understanding of the interaction between international sport and politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]