"Dual Communication Process" of Sports Diplomacy: Concept and Model

In recent years, the study of sports diplomacy has been an upsurge in academic circle. From the perspective of materialism, researchers understand sports diplomacy as a tool for the subject to exert influence on the object but show disagreement on the concept of sports diplomacy and its attributes. The theory of "relation process" was introduced to explore the correlations between public diplomacy and government diplomacy, sport and diplomacy.Sports diplomacy was regarded as the "double communication process" of sports public diplomacy and government diplomacy. The model was hence established. It is held that only those sports foreign communication activities that can trigger and promote government diplomacy are sports diplomacy. Also, sports diplomacy is not a means for one country to influence other countries, but an interactive action with the purpose of recreating international relations.