Take American Football: violence, breaks, commercials, unnecessary rules.
A snapshot of American Culture? Perhaps…,
Canadian Hockey: ice rink, quirky halftime rituals.
A snapshot of Canadian Culture? Perhaps…,
Football (the checkered ball sort): fluidity, good pacing, minimal abrasive contact, diplomatic relations between players and referees.
A snapshot of culture outside North America sans Mexico? Likely.
The United States is a nation founded on a constitution. This seemingly simple fact is more than many lawless nations can say. I am by no means a defector. A U.S. native who has played and coached football (of the pads sort) and baseball, I have a vested interest in the fifty-state nation and its culture. In the past I’ve wondered why, however, Washington is keen to impose its policies on other nations in an American Football Fashion instead of a soccer fashion (think bulldozer vs garden shears).
Catering to your audience is a central tenet of business and sports, and I can’t see why foreign policy should be any different. Terrorism is a heinous act and generally an anomaly that is hard to predict and even harder to prevent. The only way to attack terrorism is to attack the ideology of radical organized dissent. Attacking terrorism has nothing to do with attacking nations, although nations that knowingly and actively harbor terrorist activity should be punished. This is more about avoidance than confrontation, however. The United States of America could avoid further confrontation and subsequent retaliation by taking a note out of soccer’s diplomacy as opposed to American Football’s dominance.
Cheers to better foreign relations.
The Bird's Song 