What does the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and space politics have to do with each other? Quite a lot and it demonstrates China’s ability to mix sport and politics in their national self-promotion, writes senior analyst Stanis Elsborg.

The upcoming 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo has raised questions about national identity and belonging among the Japanese population. Especially tennis player Naomi Osaka, who is daughter of a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, has been subject to some surviving racism in Japan, Asger Røjle Christensen reports from the Japanese capital.

In recent years, rich Muslim countries have won many politically attractive hosting rights for international sporting events. But, Israeli athletes pay a high price for this development.

The organisers of the UCI 2017 Road World Championships in Bergen lacked the necessary financial insight and were overly optimistic in the planning of the event, says a new report that looks into monetary and non-monetary effects of the event.

Sporting events in Russia are directly linked to the formation of a new Russian national idea and identity under Putin’s rule and have become an important tool in forming the narrative of the nation and establishing a meaningful relationship between the past, present and future, writes Stanis Elsborg in this analysis on sport and identity in Russia.

After four years of the ‘best World Cup ever’, Brazil’s World Cup legacy is taking shape – and it doesn’t look pretty for the lovers of the once iconic ‘jogo bonito'. Jorge Knijnik looks into the cultural, political and sporting impact of the 2014 event on the people of Brazil.

When Argentina plays at the 2018 World Cup in Russia they are not alone. A group of ‘Barrasbravas’, as the Argentine ultras are known, are following their team to Russia. The Barrasbravas are not the only fan group with a violent record.

Sport has united Korea in the past. But only for short periods of time and without securing lasting détente between North and South Korea. Asger Røjle Christensen describes previous and current attempts of sports diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.