Sports Diplomacy and North America
As all eyes turn towards North America as it hosts FIFA World Cup 2026, the natural question becomes how does sports diplomacy play a round among the co-hosts, as well as the teams, fans, and media involved around the world’s biggest football festival.
This was the conversation starter for the Council on Foreign Relations’ recent State and Local Officials webinar, “Sports Diplomacy and North America,” in which I discuss with CFR Senior Fellow Edward Alden all things sports diplomacy.
Joy and Changing the Narrative: The Surprising Example of Sports Diplomacy Storytelling Within FIFA 2026’s Group of Death
The massive global storytelling platform of FIFA World Cup 2026 provides an opportunity for the Iraqi men’s national team to reset global narratives, informed by lessons from the FFF’s sports diplomacy work with the Lionesses of Mesopotamia.
Football (Soccer) Media Work
Since the 2013 publication of The Making of Les Bleus: Sport in France, 1958-2010 (Lexington Books), France won FIFA 2018, UEFA Nation’s League, and contested the FIFA 2022 final. Little surprise that the sport continues to empower the country to punch through international headlines, sporting or otherwise, for it consistently produces some of the world’s top footballers, the second largest exporter of players worldwide and the top supplier of talent to Europe.
France hosted FIFA 2019, served as home to the world’s most dominant professional football club, the women’s side at Lyon, and produced Grace Geyoro, who set a new transfer fee record in her move from Paris Saint-Germain to London City Lionesses in September 2025…even as the women’s game struggles.
Here is my collected media reporting and analysis on global football, French and otherwise, including the two foundational pieces: my 2014 New York Times article on Les Bleus and 2015 The New Yorker feature on French women’s football.
EuroBasket: A Continent of Cagers
While you were on vacation, the basketball world was hard at work. Across the globe, FIBA tournaments were played or prepared for as countries vie for national bragging rights. Now, with all eyes on EuroBasket2025 and its NBA and EuroLeague stars, here’s a republication of a 2015 book review of Le Continent Basket, which delved into the history and “making of” basketball across the European continent.
It’s A Wrap: Paris Summer 2024
It’s been a tough week without that je ne sais quoi magic that the Paris 2024 Games conferred. here are a few things I’ll integrate into my global communications, sports diplomacy, and teaching work this fall.
Field Notes from Taiwan and France: Spring 2023
This spring, I had the privilege to spend time in Taipei and Paris, two cosmopolitan capitals half a world away but in which the lessons from the court were bountiful. Here are three main lessons for sports marcomms and PR professionals to be better communicators to global audiences.
Peak Wembymania?
Ahead of the NBA Draft 2023, learn more about the intergenerational story told in Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA for, contrary to some media analysis, over the past 25+ years France has become a main pipeline for talent into the North American leagues. This didn’t happen overnight, nor is it a “new” phenomenon this year.
France and the UEFA Euro at 60
France begins its UEFA Euro 2020 campaign against Germany at the Munich Football Arena. The symbolism is rife this year, and this edition is still known as Euro2020, a nod to the competition’s 60th anniversary and celebration of an integrated “Europe” that's had the French as a driving force in the post-1945 era.
Basketball Is Back
When we last saw the NBA in action 141 days ago on March 11, the international spotlight fell on Utah Jazz All-Star center, French international Rudy Gobert, whose positive coronavirus test result effectively shut down the league. Tonight is a very international restart. Eighty-nine players from 34 different countries will participate in the 22-team bubble in Orlando, and according to NBA International, some of the players have opted to wear social justice messages on their game jerseys in their native languages.