SPORT AND NATION BRANDING: THE SOFT POWER AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OF FOOTBALL IN CAMEROON

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold war, the world and international relations as well, have witnessed several mutations and transformations. These changes occurred both in the nature and the conceptual approach of international politics. This can be seen with the changing nature of actors, power and diplomacy illustrated through soft power or new concepts like public diplomacy. In this new environment culture, entertainment and sport can be of great importance. Sport can create public interest and public goodwill, and appeal directly to the general public, so as to provide a favorable environment for a nation to manage its international relations. Though rarely itself a sufficient condition for diplomacy, sport can be effective in facilitating changes or increasing momentum in diplomatic practices and sympathy. In this perspective sport as soft power tool and public diplomacy are interrelated since they nourished themselves each other. In the present paper, by focusing on sport mainly football as prospective tool of public diplomacy and soft power in Cameroon, our aim is to demonstrate how sport can put a country in the spotlight and showcase all it has to offer, and thus produce effect in selling nation’s brand in an harmonious dialogue among national and foreign public opinion. The organization of the last Africa Cup of Nations by Cameroon, between January and February 2022 precisely, contributes to illustrating in the eyes of the world the place that sport and football in particular, can play in the history of this country.