Sport as Soft Power: Ethiopia’s Sports Diplomacy in Foreign Policy, Regional Strategy, and National Branding

Abstract

Sport is becoming more visible in Ethiopia in terms of foreign policy and national branding and in terms of international interaction. Although Ethiopia has in the past undertaken influence via diplomatic activism, peacekeeping, and multilateral leadership, the nation has also managed to create a distinct kind of soft power based on athletics, football, and its Olympic heritage. The paper will also apply the soft-power, public diplomacy, and nation-branding theory to understand how Ethiopia is using sport to influence perceptions about the country, optimize bilateral relations, develop regional unity, and build national identity. Relying upon primary sources, such as Ethiopian government policy statements, Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) and Ethiopian Olympic Committee (EOC) reports, African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 frameworks, archival Olympic statistics, media interviews, and athlete speeches, this article presents the most detailed evaluation up to this point of Ethiopia sport diplomacy architecture. The results indicate that the athletics-based Ethiopian soft power is still visible and with unexploited potentials globally; football diplomacy has the potential but underused capacity regionally; athlete-diaspora networks have the capacity and shaped politics; and the lack of institutions to coordinate actions constrains the ability to engage. The paper puts forward a national sport diplomacy plan that is focused on athlete ambassadorship, inter-ministerial coordination, regional leadership, and strategic branding. It concludes that under the condition of systematic introduction into the Ethiopian foreign policy, sport can help strengthen the country in the global community, help build a peace in the region, and demonstrate the influence of Ethiopia in the African multilateral systems