International sports events promote peace between countries. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

The contribution of sporting events to conflict resolution between nations has been widely accepted. While some

disagree pointing

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disagree, pointing

to violent encounters between angry fans, history has witnessed countries using sports to ease political tensions in the safest way possible. It is true that some major sports events have divided nations

as a result

of violent encounters between angry fans. The 2016 UEFA cup held in France,

for example

, escalated the tensions between Russia and England when fans from these two countries engaged in physical fights.

This

instance nearly

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instance, nearly

cost Russia the 2018 World Cup. Having said that,

such

conflicts between national teams are not as common as one would expect. Sport’s role in reducing conflict can be traced back to the creation of the Olympic Games. Ever since

then

there have been many instances where sports have eased political tensions between countries. Perhaps the most well-known example of

this

is China’s ‘ping-pong diplomacy’, whereby the Chinese government invited American players to exhibition matches in 1971.

This

marked the

first

time the US citizens were allowed to enter the country since 1949,

also

enabling political dialogues to take place between the two governments. There is no denying that sport during the Cold War was often highly politicized. As bad as it may sound, there was one crucial advantage to it: Cold War tensions were played out

on

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in

the sporting area, which prevented two superpowers from going to war. Both countries focused on winning sport competitions to assert dominance over each other. One of the most popular sports in

Soviet Union

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the Soviet Union

was chess and communists wanted to prove to the rest of the world that they were the smartest by dominating in the most intellectually demanding

sport

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sports

. Perhaps in a way, an American chess player, Bobby Fischer

single-handedly taking

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is single-handedly taking

single-handedly takes

down the whole Soviet team might have been the

first

step towards ending the Cold War altogether. In conclusion, a few instances where sports events causing conflicts between die-hard fans cannot undermine the importance of sports in bringing nations together and preventing the actual war between America and Soviet Union.