Sport and geopolitics. The case of Italy (1945-1955).

Despite the assertion of Pierre de Coubertin, according to whom it exist a sporting geography that differs from the political geography, the structure of modern international sport tend to reproduce the image of a world divided in Nation-State, competing among each other’s. In a similar fashion, the main regional competitions (Mediterranean Games, Commonwealth Games) or the choices of the opponent in the sporting bilateral relations respond not only to sporting, but also to political and geographical consideration. Starting from these considerations the aim of this paper is to investigate and reflect on the trajectories of the Italian sport in the first decade after the war, in order to analyse how much they reflected the interest of the Italian foreign policy. Specifically, the analysis focus to some specific sporting/geographical areas: (1) the Italian community outside Italy (2) the imagined community of Latinity (3) the Mediterranean, (4) the Danubian Europe (5) the CECA Europe, (6) the former Empire. 

Keywords: Sport, Geopolitics, Italy, Postwar.