2016/01/13 by Jon Dart · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts #Sports, Gender, and Society #Sports Analytics and Performance #Mainstream #Football #Politics #Soft power #State (computer science) #Tournament #Media studies #Operationalization #Political science #Political economy #Power (physics) #Sociology of sport #Sociology #Law #Gender studies #Advertising
paper · doi:10.1080/17430437.2015.1133595
openalex publication_date 2016/01/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Until relatively recently, the state of Israel was preoccupied with its military security and paid little attention to cultural politics. However, the emergence of other ‘battlegrounds’ has seen a shift to ‘soft power’ in an attempt to generate a more benevolent global image. This paper spotlights an international sporting event which ordinarily attracts very limited interest from the mainstream media. However, when held in Israel, it created much greater interest. The paper identifies the UEFA’s Men’s U-21 tournament, held in Israel in 2013, to assess how different groups responded to the event: celebratory by the host nation and its supporters, the Israeli Football Association and UEFA; critical amongst Palestinians and their supporters in the international community. The paper identifies how the Israeli state is using ‘hasbara’ in an attempt to arrest its deteriorating international image and shows how the concept is empirically operationalized (‘hasbara in action’).