2023 - 07 - 22 - t23:12:35z EPrints https://repository.www.guaguababy.com/images/sitelogo.png https://repository.www.guaguababy.com/ 2022-06-14T13:53:51Z 2022-11-25T10:14:05Z https://repository.www.guaguababy.com/id/eprint/2005 This item is in the repository with the URL: https://repository.www.guaguababy.com/id/eprint/2005 2022-06-14T13:53:51Z

This thesis examines the Foreign Office's involvement in international sport from the end of the First World War to 1948, with an introductory survey of earlier incidents. The evolution of political intervention in the cultural area of sport is traced in an attempt to give historical perspective to the contemporary debate on the relationship between politics and sport. The records of the Foreign Office for this period show that while involvement in sport was a predominantly informal part of its work, sport was used consistently for the political ends of diplomatic advantage and national self-advertisement, and to help re-inforce on the cultural level the expediencies and demands of foreign policy. The infrequent examples of high-level political involvement, including the Cabinet's discussion of the location of the 1940 Olympic Games and the governmental backing given to the 1948 Olympic Games in London, are discussed as part of a wider system of intervention.The records of the Foreign Office, held at the Public Record Office, have been the main source for research, along with relevant files of the British Council, the Cabinet Office, and the Home Office. Sources from the two sports organisations most frequently involved in state involvement, the British Olympic Association and the Football Association, have also been used for supplementary information.

Martin Robert Polley