National Interest

by Christian Dobson Santiago

    As the United States prepares to host the World Cup and the Olympics, it must present a united front despite political divisions.

    This past January, the Meridian International Center held its inaugural Sports Diplomacy Forum. Speakers talked about sports as a “catalyst” for economic growth and dialogue, leaning on the old, comfortable premise that cheering together inevitably leads to living together peacefully.

    That optimism is understandable, if naive. The United States is preparing to host the world twice, as the June FIFA World Cup 2026 Final and the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held within its borders. Don’t be mistaken, though, as these are not just sporting dates. They are strategic deadlines in an increasingly multipolar world.

    The world has long moved past the vocabulary uttered during Meridian’s Forum. Great power competition isn’t some abstract concept. By 2026 and 2028, our adversaries and competitors will treat these events as arenas for leverage, as they do ports, supply chains, data centers and elections.

    If Washington continues to talk about sports primarily as “soft power,” it will misunderstand both the risk and the opportunity.

• The Authoritarian Sports Advantage

    The central tension here is simple. Authoritarian governments can synchronize sports, money, media and policy behind a single national agenda. For better or worse, the American system does not work in that way.

    In China, sport policy is codified in law, with the state openly mobilizing the sector to support national goals. Russia demonstrates an even more aggressive application of state intervention.

    The World Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation into the Sochi scandal revealed that Russia’s Ministry of Sport systematically manipulated the doping control process. These examples serve as crude but potent examples of something far more significant than cheating. Rather, a state’s ability to coordinate athletes, officials and institutions toward political ends.

    In Saudi Arabia, sports are now a pillar of national branding and external influence. Under Saudi Vision 2030, the kingdom frames athletic excellence as a geopolitical ambition. The Public Investment Fund has contributed an immense amount of capital in support of this goal, with reports showing multi-billion-dollar backing for LIV Golf alone.

    This approach is best described as “Sportpolitik,” the use of sports as an instrument of sovereignty, with a unified command that synchronizes reputation, coercion and capital.

    The United States presents a stark contrast. Washington does not own the National Football League or the National Basketball Association. It does not control the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and it does not directly govern localities that play host to major sporting events. It does not command potential corporate sponsors and it cannot treat every stadium as if it were a federal installation.

    While this autonomy is central to the American identity, it creates a distinct strategic disadvantage. Against adversaries that enforce total societal discipline, the United States risks fragmentation on the world stage.

• How US Adversaries Could Exploit Federalism

    The upcoming World Cup, spanning 11 US cities and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics will unfold across a vast and fragmented landscape. This geography and timeline create critical vulnerabilities. Every host city is a separate political jurisdiction. Every venue is a separate security ecosystem. Every sponsor, broadcaster and league has its own incentives, reputational concerns and risk tolerances.

    Adversaries do not need to “win” the games. They only need to exploit the seams. This exploitation can take several forms: reputation laundering through strategic investments to normalize regimes; leverage through market access, visas and commercial dependence; and disruption via cyber operations and influence campaigns to provoke overreactions or embarrass the host.

    Framing sports this way is not overly cynical; it mirrors the US government’s own posture toward major events. The Department of Homeland Security routinely designates National Special Security Events (NSSEs), which trigger a massive federal response led by multiple federal agencies. However, while Washington clearly considers such events to be physical security targets, it has failed to build the political and commercial coordination necessary to counter non-security threat dimensions.

• How to Correct US Sports Diplomacy Posture

    A genuine strategic correction is underway in Washington. The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy rejects what it describes as post-Cold War “laundry lists of wishes” in favor of a sharp focus on core national interests. This pivot is echoed in the 2026 National Defense Strategy’s emphasis on deterrence in an increasingly tumultuous world.

    This shift is incredibly relevant to sports, as the legacy model of sports diplomacy was dangerously passive and assumed that simply hosting an event and smiling for the cameras constituted a strategy. In this era of competition, passive hospitality is a vulnerability.

    However, this new muscular posture does carry risk. A White House defined by a posture of strength can easily sabotage itself if it treats local partners as internal enemies. Reporting ahead of the World Cup has already shown how politicized rhetoric around “unsafe” cities and the use of federal force can create friction with host jurisdictions and feed a narrative of American disorder.

    Herein lies the trap: the federal government cannot counter authoritarian sportpolitik by waging war on its own sports ecosystem. It needs those teams, leagues, corporate sponsors and liberal-led host cities to make these events succeed. A nationalist message that alienates the very leagues, sponsors and liberal-led host cities required to deliver these events will only result in culture wars staged inside of the country’s biggest global showcases.

    And as history shows, rivals do not need to invent propaganda when America volunteers it.

• A United Front for the US Sports Ecosystem

    Washington cannot command America’s sports ecosystem; it must coordinate it. This requires building out a functional operating system for the “American Decade of Sports,” rather than just rolling out a slogan that looks good plastered about Truth Social. The goal is not a federal takeover of sports, but interoperability that aligns threat awareness, crisis response and strategic messaging across a fragmented landscape.

    It starts with a simple division of labor. The federal government provides threat picture, intelligence, security architecture, legal tools and strategic prioritization. Leagues, teams, broadcasters and cities provide the product, the fan experience, the commercial platform and the cultural legitimacy that no government can manufacture.

    To formalize this effort, Washington must establish a “Team USA” approach that treats policy coordination just as seriously as athletic preparation. A White House-led coordination cell at the National Security Council should routinely meet with major leagues, host city security leads, local organizing committees and key venue operators.

    The federal government must also build a classified-to-unclassified threat pipeline to provide private partners with actionable warnings without forcing intelligence into political theatrics. If Washington can manage this for critical infrastructure, it can replicate it for major global sporting events.

    This level of coordination requires early and proactive planning across all jurisdictions. While the NSSE framework clarifies roles once an event is designated, it does not bridge the years of coordination gaps between federal planners and local administrators. Washington must invest sustained attention here, not just provide funding.

    Furthermore, the federal government should rely on incentives instead of mandates. Washington cannot order leagues to adopt specific standards, but it can shape corporate behavior through grants, expedited federal support and contractual conditions tied to cybersecurity baselines and vendor screening.

    It must also push for transparency on foreign influence regarding event-adjacent funds. The United States shouldn’t seek to impose a broad ban on foreign capital. Instead, it should seek bright-line disclosure and risk screening around sponsorships and media buys to prevent foreign state-linked entities from purchasing reputational insurance through proximity to the games.

    Finally, the United States must scale its visa and mobility capacity to handle massive surges without self-inflicted humiliation. The State Department already advises that World Cup tickets do not guarantee entry into the country, which sets the right baseline. The true operational challenge is expanding the system so legitimate fans and delegations can travel smoothly. A bureaucratic backlog should never be allowed to morph into a global narrative about American incompetence.

    Ultimately, none of this asks Washington to pretend that sports are apolitical. It only asks Washington to stop pretending that politics ends at the stadium gate.

• The Bipartisan Imperative for Team USA

    The most dangerous American delusion about sports is that they exist separately from the country’s conflicts or competitions. That delusion is comforting, but ultimately serves as a form of refusal—a conscious decision to ignore the world as it actually is.

    The solution is to prevent adversaries from weaponizing events like the World Cup and Olympics as evidence of American fragmentation and decline. Achieving this will require strict discipline from both sides of the political divide.

    Republicans must recognize a fundamental reality about national strategy. They cannot run a cohesive global sports initiative while waging rhetorical war on the host cities and corporate partners that make American sports globally dominant. Conversely, Democrats must understand that treating security coordination as a partisan project will only turn legitimate counter-influence measures into another front in the domestic culture war.

    In 2026 and 2028, the world will not grade America on its intentions. Rather, it will grade the country entirely on its performance.

    The American Decade of Sports has the potential to serve as a massive strategic asset, provided Washington treats it like one. This requires replacing the outdated model of passive sports diplomacy with a realist public-private partnership. One that counters the authoritarian unity of command with the American unity of purpose.

    The White House cannot achieve this alone. The leagues, teams and cities are equally unable to manage the threat in isolation. If America insists on fighting itself while hosting the world, its rivals will never need to beat Team USA. They will simply wait for America to beat itself.