Sport mega-events, geopolitical renegotiation, and soft power: introducing a framework of pushing and pulling

Sport mega-events have been increasingly used as tools of geopolitical development, particularly by emerging nations. This article examines how sport mega-events contribute to geopolitical renegotiation through a comparative case study analysis of the Taipei 2017 Universiade and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Developing a ‘push-pull’ framework, the study reveals that hosts simultaneously ‘push’ against relationships perceived as constraining whilst ‘pulling’ in more favourable entities. Taipei deployed hard power assets to resist Chinese regional dominance whilst cultivating soft power through Western emulation. Birmingham suppressed hard power displays to project inclusive soft power, leveraging their established nature to construct alternative Commonwealth hierarchies. The article makes two theoretical contributions: proposing a framework of diplomatic renegotiation through Collins’ zones of civilisational attraction; and advancing world-systems theory to capture regional contexts. Challenging scholarship focused primarily on attraction, the analysis reveals that diplomatic ‘pushing’, when combined with ‘pulling’, may constitute strategic resistance rather than failure to attract.