Fostering Peace through Sport

This literature review will discuss the effects of youth sports programs on the rates of
violence and harmonious relations between rival ethnic groups. Sports can be used as a tool to
promote peace in youth populations by instilling the positive values associated with sports to
positively impact the behavior of the youth participants involved. The youth sports programs that
are analyzed in this literature review are the Star Project in Liberia, the Football 4 Peace program
in Israel, the Golden TRIANGLE project in Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, and the Sport
Development Project in Mussoorie India. Sports-oriented youth programs demonstrate a unique
approach to promoting peace in politically and socially tense environments. Such programs have
the ability to alter violent behavior into positive behavior through a values-based approach to
coaching sports. Although the participants involved might not develop into professional athletes,
the experience gained from such programs is invaluable and offers the youth participants
involved the ability to interact with individuals from different ethnic groups they would not
otherwise be interacting with in their daily lives. Sports-oriented youth programs offer an
effective and unique approach to promoting peace relations amongst rival ethnic groups in
hostile environments.

Introduction

Sports-oriented youth programs in developing countries have been expanding over the
years due to their unique approach to promoting peace and social development in war-torn
countries and regions throughout the world. Such programs use sports to promote social
development and peace in several socially and politically tense areas, and help facilitate
harmonious interactions amongst communities that are plagued by war and violence. Sportsoriented programs were created to bridge the gap between rival communities, facilitate social
integration and development, and seek peace in a number of countries and regions throughout the
world. The prospect of using sports to foster peaceful coexistences between different ethnic
groups has been growing in recent years, but is not a new concept.
The introduction of youth sports programs in developing countries came about from a
desire by European colonizers to promote and preserve social order in their colonized territories
(Giulianotti). Sports can be utilized to set up boundaries and foster peace (Sorak), which can
have a transformative effect on the development of youths participating in social development
programs that involve sports (Donnelly). Racist notions of civilizing the populations of
developing countries have since faded from the implementation of such programs, but notions of
facilitating social order are still relevant. Governments and non-governmental organizations have
utilized sports as a means of uniting communities, and have introduced players to a new positive
lifestyle to which they would not otherwise be exposed. The following cases exemplify sportsoriented social development programs that involve innovative and effective methods for
fostering peaceful relations amongst rival ethnic groups in hostile environments.

STAR Project

The first sports-oriented initiative that will be examined is a short-term program called
the STAR project, which is a youth soccer program set up in Liberia to help reintegrate ex-child
combatants into society, and help prevent further instances of armed conflict through soccer
training and competition. Formed in 2006 by the international non-governmental organization
Samaritans Purse, this project focuses on instilling values of self-discipline, truthfulness,
appreciation, and respect (Rookwood). These values make up the acronym STAR, and the word
star is also a reference to Liberias independence as a sovereign nation. The term social
development implies focusing on the overall development of the general population within a
society, which is what the STAR project is generally striving towards. However, this project is
especially concerned with improving the behavior of the individuals within the society, as well.
In Liberian society, soccer represents ideas of pride and togetherness (Armstrong), which has
helped to foster the appeal of such a program being brought to Liberia.
The STAR project involves Liberian youths who have been born and bred into a culture
of violence, which is what this program strives to replace. Young Liberians are forced to live in
fear in an unstable and tense environment, and have even experienced war for themselves. The
STAR project offers the youth of Liberia a chance to experience a positive, educational, and
enlightening experience, and allows them to interact with a large pool of players from different
ethnic backgrounds (Rookwood). Instilling positive values in the Liberian players is a huge part
of training, and coaches are encouraged to utilize the values of STAR: self-discipline,
truthfulness, appreciation, and respect.

In line with the disciplinary aspect, players are encouraged to play within the rules of the
game, be punctual for training sessions, and remain concentrated throughout the program. The
truthfulness aspect has coaches emphasize on instilling values of honesty, as well as teaching
players the proper conduct in a soccer context. The appreciation and respect aspects were
instilled throughout the training sessions by allowing players to interact with each other through
the playing of soccer in a positive environment (Rookwood).

Football 4 Peace

As opposed to the STAR project, the Football 4 Peace program was able to implement a
more detailed and systematic approach in terms of its coaching and training techniques. The
Football 4 Peace program, which was established in Israel in 2001 by a collection of British
Universities, has been around for a few more years than the STAR project. The Football 4 Peace
program was able customize its coaching and training techniques over the years to provide the
most effective means of attaining a positive outcome for the Arab and Jewish youths
participating in the program (Rookwood). A manual was devised for the Football 4 Peace
program that emphasized the promotion of certain values unique to the conflict between the Arab
and Jewish populations in the region. Understanding, unity, and peaceful co-existence are
emphasized through values-based coaching exercises that promote respect, responsibility, trust,
neutrality, and inclusion (Lambert).
Trust exercises required players to solve problems by emphasizing teamwork,
cooperation, integration, and communication. Respect exercises were derived from the idea that
if different groups experienced an adversarial relationship, but maintain respect for one another,

they will be more willing to settle conflicts peacefully (Ramsbotham). This idea of adversarial
respect is incredibly relevant to the disputes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, as these disputes
arise constantly in varying degrees of violence, and require the usage of peaceful negotiations.
Teams were constantly changed during the program, combining both Jewish and Arab players
together to form teams, which encouraged teamwork and competition between players regardless
of their differing ethnic backgrounds.
Another notion that inspired the Football 4 Peace programs unique approach to
facilitating harmonious relations between the two groups was the idea that enduring hardship is a
key component of reconstructing the relationship between adversarial groups (Ralph). This idea
was utilized during training sessions when coaches attempted to incite a conflict, and would use
this conflict as an opportunity to teach players positive methods for resolving conflicts
peacefully, while maintaining a safe atmosphere (Rookwood).
Towards the end of the Football 4 Peace program a festival is organized, which acts as a
soccer tournament between teams that include both Arabic and Jewish players dispersed among
the teams. This day acts as a culmination of the values that have been instilled in the players
since the start of the program, and the players are required to reflect these values during the
tournament. A key component for the success of this tournaments ability to reflect the values
instilled in players throughout the program was that the players were required to referee the
games for themselves. Players were required to settle disputes in the game in a timely and
respectful manner, while still maintaining the rules of the game. Coaches were able to intervene
during disputes and remind players of the positive conduct that is expected of them (Rookwood).

Golden TRIANGLE Football Project

While Football 4 Peace is an annual and ongoing program, other programs have adopted
their template to be used for short-term programs, as well. The short-term program located in the
Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, which is situated at the intersection of Laos,
Myanmar, and Thailand, focused on soccer as a means of reclaiming the youth in the region from
activities involving drug and human trafficking. This program, sponsored by the nongovernmental organization Childlife Mae Sai, attempts to address this issue of youths being
forced into labor, warfare, and sex by creating a youth soccer program targeted towards the
development of such exploited youth populations in the area. This program, through the usage of
soccer training and competition, gives the children of this region an activity to occupy their time
since they do not have access to certain luxuries, such as video games, television, internet, etc.
Most of these children play sports after their schooling is done for the day because it is one of the
few activities that can occupy their time, other than being involved in illegal activities, which are
detrimental to the development of these children.
In this poverty stricken area, children are genuinely receptive to sports, especially soccer,
and programs like the Golden TRIANGLE Football project in 2008 are a great way for the
children of this region to get some exercise, while at the same time share a positive and
educational experience with their peers. The program, led by British soccer coaches,
implemented a value-based approach for its youth training sessions that would identify certain
positive behaviors in individuals, and reinforce them in the game so that they can be taken
beyond the soccer field into their daily lives (Lambert). If the behaviors of the individuals in the
program did not reflect the values that the program was designed to instill, coaches would be

encouraged to step in and instruct the individual on how to behave in the context of the game
(Beedy). If the ball was kicked off of the field, and a player retrieved the ball and handed it to a
player from the opposing team, this behavior would be reinforced and exemplified as a respectful
value to be replicated by the other players (Yong). Coaches have found that the competitive and
universal nature of soccer along with other associated values of responsibility, teamwork, and
respect, are key tools for implementing positive behavioral outcomes for the players involved in
the program (Yong).
The acronym TRIANGLE was used to highlight the key values that the program sought
to instill in its participants. These values were trust, respect, inclusion, attitude, neutrality, graft,
learning, and enjoyment, and were used by coaches to correct the negative behavior and
reinforce the positive behavior that coincided with these specific values (Yong). Coaches also
emphasize to the players that winning and losing in a respectful manner are much more
important than just winning the game (Yong). The coaching philosophy in this program reflects
the idea that the players should be settling conflicts and overcoming problems amongst
themselves in order to forge relationships between players from different ethnic backgrounds
(Townsend). Coaches were also encouraged to stop play during training sessions when an
opportunity arose to teach the players whether the behavior observed was positive or negative,
and then reinforce the positive values displayed.

Sport Development Project

Another program that aimed at sports-oriented education to achieve positive behavioral

outcomes in the participating youths was the Sport Development project set up in 2009 in the
Tibetan Homes Foundation village of Mussoorie, a village in northern India. After fifty years of
persecution, imprisonment, and torture, Tibetans have sought refuge in neighboring countries,
such as India, to protect their identity and culture, and have always placed great importance in
education (Kenyon).
The Sports Development project, organized by Liverpool Hope University, aimed at
engaging its participants in a sports-oriented program that focused on the social development of
the youths involved. The program was designed around a values-based approach to coaching and
included methods that saw coaches intervening and stopping play to teach the players about the
positive behaviors that should be exemplified in sports and in their daily lives. This program was
specifically designed to reflect the religious and cultural practices of the Tibetan people by
focusing on the individuals mind, body, and spirit through competitive sports and noncompetitive activities (Kenyon).
Although Tibetan culture does not place great importance in sports as an educational tool,
this program aimed to alter the Tibetan perception of sports in order to promote peace, social
development, and the building of bridges between communities. The program was designed to
engage the students of this village with workshops that focused on values-based coaching
techniques. The project gave a platform for the staff of the Tibetan village to teach the youths
participating in the program about the positive and non-violent values associated with sports, and

was structured around various sports clinics and coaching exercises. These workshops also
focused on teaching the participants involved about the physiological processes of the body, and
encouraged the participants to participate in the community to enhance their psychological
wellbeing (Kenyon). The activities designed by the programs planners reflected the ethnic,
religious, and cultural beliefs of Tibet, while appropriately responding to the needs of the Tibetan
staff who would carry on this program in the future.

Conclusion

Soccer, in particular, is a relatively simple game: soccer is cheap to organize, easy to

manage, and the rules of the game have minimal variations among cultures and nations. Team
sports, such as soccer, encourage contact and engagement between different cultures and groups,
which is incredibly important for avoiding violence amongst such cultures and groups (Tidwell).
The regulated aspect of soccer also proved to be a useful tool because players were required to
adjust to the rules of the game, and if they had the ability to do so, then they could potentially
carry this learned ability into their daily lives by behaving properly in social contexts. The ability
of soccer to create a conflict also proved to be a useful tool for instilling methods of peaceful
conflict resolution amongst the players.
It is difficult to measure the effects of these programs on the rates of violence occurring
in each country after these programs were implemented. These programs are being implemented
in locations that experience high rates of violence where violence is a common and daily
occurrence, and some might argue that conflicts between different groups are unavoidable
(Kriesberg). The implementation of these sports programs at such a small scale may not have a

significant enough effect in lowering the rates of violence in their respective countries and
regions. However, this is most likely due to the fact that such programs do not have enough
funding to make a significant impact on the majority of the youth populations that these
programs seek to affect.
While the country of Myanmar faced incredible difficulties from government crackdowns
on anti-government protests and a natural disaster, the Golden Triangle Football project was
deemed a success by the programs planners. Some might argue that the participants of such a
program might not develop into professional soccer players, but the positive experience they
gained from such a program will surely make them better citizens and less prone to use violence
to settle disputes (Nujidat).
The Tibetan case was deemed a failure in the eyes of the programs planners, mostly due
to the fact that Tibetans were not as receptive to sports as a tool for educating the youths and
producing positive behavioral outcomes (Kenyon). Unlike the previous cases, where programs
were built around the values held dear to the ethnic groups participating, no such plan was
devised in the Sport Development Project. A lack of personnel, as well as a lack of funding
contributed heavily to the failure of this program to alter the mindset of Tibetans to view sport as
a character building exercise. In a school with 1,600 students and 250 staff members, only two
staff members were delegated to teaching sport, which sent a message to the program planners
that Tibetans do not take sports seriously. The programs experience reflects the Tibetan notion
that lumps sports in with secular and popular culture, which are traditionally ignored by Tibetans
(McKay).
The Football 4 Peace program was the most successful program because it is an annual
and ongoing program, and therefore, has been able to reach more youths than the other programs,

which were short-term projects only. The cases in Liberia, Israel, and Southeast Asia included
participants that were open to learning the positive values associated with sports, especially the
concepts of winning and losing in a positive manner, as opposed to the idea of victory as a
triumph of one group over another. In every case, the concepts of fostering relationships and
instilling positive values in the players remained the focus of the programs, as opposed to just
teaching the skill sets involved with the sport of soccer.
The effectiveness of these programs comes down to the amount of time the program is
able to occupy for the participating youths. For these types of programs to be considered
successful, they would need to occupy enough of an individuals time to take away from the time
they might spend engaging in violent activities. Currently, these programs are not able to occupy
a significant enough amount of a participants time to alter their beliefs of using violence to settle
disputes with different ethnic groups. However, these programs could become successful if more
scholars were inclined to study this field, and show the true effects of such programs on the rates
of violence and rates of harmonious relations amongst different ethnic groups within a
community. If such studies were done that provided evidence that these programs can alter the
behavior of youths from violent to peaceful behavior, then more funding could be allocated to
these programs. Increased funding allocated to these programs would allow for them to hire
more staff and increase the amount of time that these programs could occupy for the youths
participating.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Gary. "Talking Up the Game: Football and the Reconstruction of Liberia, West
Africa." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. 9.4 (2002): Web.

Beedy, Jeffrey Pratt. Sports PLUS: Positive Learning Using Sports: Developing Youth
Sports Programs That Teach Positive Values. Hamilton, MA: Project Adventure, 1997.
Print.

Donnelly, Peter. Subcultures in Sport: Resilience and Transformation. Sport in Social

Development. (1993): Web.

Giulianotti, Richard. Football: A Sociology of the Global Game. Contemporary Sociology.

29.6 (2000): Web.

Kenyon, James. Sporting Education A Global Hope? Examining a Sport Development

Educational Initiative at a Tibetan SOS Childrens Village in Northern India. Journal of
Qualitative Research in Sports Studies. 2009.

Kriesberg, Louis. Constructive Conflicts from Escalation to Resolution. Lanham, MD:

Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Print.

Lambert, John. A Values-Based Approach to Coaching Spot in Divided Societies.

Football for Peace? The Challenges of Using Sport for Co-existence in Israel. (2007):
Web.

Nujidat, Ghazi. A View from the Israeli Sports Authority. Football for peace? The
challenges of using sport for co-existence in Israel. Oxford. 2007. Print.

Ralph, Michael Le Sngal Qui Gagne: Soccer and the Stakes of Neoliberalism in a
Postcolonial Port. Soccer and Society. (2006): Web.

Ramsbotham, Oliver; Woodhouse, Tom; Miall, Hugh. Contemporary Conflict Resolution.

Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2005. Print.

Rookwood, Joel. "Soccer for Peace and Social Development." Peace Review 20.4 (2008):
Web.

Tidwell, Alan. Conflict Resolved: A Critical Assessment of Conflict Resolution. London:

Pinter, 1998. Print.

Townsend, Stuart. The Physical Education Teachers Perspective. Football for Peace?
The Challenges of Using Sport for Co-Existence in Israel. Oxford: Meyer and Meyer, 2007.
Print.

Yong, Angela. The Golden Triangles Forgotten Children: Using Football to Support the
Social Development of the Extra-National Youth Population of Thailand, Myanmar, and
Laos. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies. 2008.

Response Letter

Thanks to those who reviewed my Unit 3 rough draft. I have taken Alexanders criticism
that there was no section for reflection on the argument in the rough draft. I added a more in depth
conclusion section to compare and contrast the different programs, as well as offer suggestions for
how these programs could be more successful. I also took Alexanders criticism that the transitions
between the sections needed to be stronger. I went through the essay and added better transitions
from section to section to make sure that the essay had a smoother flow. To Alexanders point of
including more data to make my argument more effective: I would have included more data, but
there really isnt much out there considering that this field of study is relatively new. I address this
in my conclusion section by urging more scholars to study this field and record more concrete data
to provide a more compelling argument for how youth sports programs can foster peaceful
relations amongst rival groups.
Marissa was confused by my first page, and was not sure whether it was the introduction
to the literature review or the abstract. The first page is the introduction to the literature review,
and I have written an abstract which will be placed before the introduction to the literature review.
She was also confused about my thesis, so I edited the last sentence of the introduction to the
literature review to refine my thesis statement. Marissa also suggested that my literature review
needed more analysis, which I provided in the conclusion section after I discuss the four programs
in detail. She suggested that I change the structure of my essay, but I think the essay is much more
organized and easy to understand separating the sections by program, as opposed to Marissas
suggestion that I separate them by their merits and deficits. Marissa also suggested to watch out
for tense in my essay, so I went through and made sure that the tense is consistent throughout.

I added a title to the literature review which reflects the argument that will be discussed. I
also synthesized the sources in my conclusion section by comparing and contrasting them to come
up with the most effective program.

Context Note

This essay is a literature review of youth sports programs in hostile environments, such as
Liberia, Israel, the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, and Mussoorie, India, and their
effects on the rates of violence and harmonious relations between rival ethnic groups. This
literature review is intended for scholars in the sports industry, as well as scholars that seek
alternative methods for fostering peaceful relations in politically and socially tense areas. Since
most of the sources were pulled from journals that discuss the usage of sports to promote peace,
the discourse community would be those in the sports industry who have the financial backing to
finance such programs in the future. There are several journals that this literature review could
appear in, including the Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies. The literature review
could also be read by those outside of the discourse community, as nothing is too technical, and
many terms are self-explanatory through context.