iplomacy is communication applied to the relations among nationstates. Traditional studies of diplomatic communication have focused on direct, government-to-government contacts, but recent scholarly attention has begun to turn to less direct forms of so-called diplomacy, in which the government of one nation seeks to employ the media and public opinion of a second to bring constituency or other political pressure on the second nation's government to act in its favor (Davison 1974; Merritt 1980). Such pressure can be directed at either increasing or restricting the latitude of foreign-policy decision making available to the target government. Manheim (1987) has proposed an interactive model of media-public-policy influences which can be used to predict or explain public diplomacy efforts, and in a recent series of studies employing the model, Manheim and Albritton (1984, 1986, 1987; Albritton and Manheim 1985) have examined the use of public relations and news management techniques by several governments to influence their portrayal in the news media of a target country, in this instance the United States. These studies have demonstrated the effect with which governments can produce, construct, and/or control access to newsworthy events for the purpose of influencing foreign public or elite opinion to their advantage. In that context, major international sporting competitions offer targets of opportunity for public diplomacy efforts. The final match of the 1986 World Cup, for example, drew a worldwide audience of 652 million, and the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games was viewed by an estimated 522 million persons (Larson 1989). And, precisely because it holds the attention of large numbers of people in multiple countries and conveys to them simple and highly symbolic messages, high-level international sporting competition is inextricably linked with international politics. With their visible nationalistic elements (flags, uniforms) and the opportunities they provide propagandists and commentators alike to interpret individual or team accomplishments as tests of national character, will, and achievement, such sporting events provide a showcase for leaders or advocates of causes who compete for world attention. (Hoberman 1984: 7-11) As Hazan (1982: 18) has put it: Sport . . . is a medium that may simultaneously embrace billions of people, an unsus-