'The best-kept secret in the State Department.' How sports help U.S. diplomats.
When U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited the Middle East last fall, he didn't go there just to talk about oil and natural gas, terrorism or the war in Ukraine.
He also went there to talk about soccer.
Before the U.S. national team's World Cup opener in Qatar, Blinken joined representatives of the American squad and dozens of young Qatari boys and girls for a soccer clinic, where he talked about one of the most useful implements in his diplomatic tool box: sports.
"We use sports as a way of connecting people, connecting people to our country. Whenever I go around the world — whatever, again, our differences may be — sports brings us together, unites us, connects us," he said.
Toward that end the State Department's sports diplomacy program
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