Sport and war: from the Global South perspective (special issue)

This special issue, “Sport and War: From the Global South Perspective,” examined the knotted relationship between sport and war from Global South perspectives. While sport is often framed as leisure, diplomacy, or cultural exchange, it also operates as a powerful institution through which nationalism, militarization, and sovereignty are performed and contested. Moving beyond metaphorical comparisons between sport and warfare, the contributions in this issue conceptualize sport as a symbolic, institutional, and digital infrastructure through which conflict is mediated and political identities are negotiated. The issue foregrounds an epistemological repositioning that challenges Global North–centric frameworks dominating existing sport–war scholarship, emphasizing colonial histories, postcolonial state formations, and uneven global power relations. Through case studies spanning Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Colombia, and China, the articles demonstrate how sport constructs narratives of legitimacy, belonging, and violence. Collectively, the contributions reveal sport as a historically situated and politically consequential arena.