Abstract

The fascist regime made much use of its youth organisations in foreign policy and sport was one of the main tools used by young people to build and consolidate international relations with their counterparts. The Fascist University Group (Guf) was the organization most frequently involved in sporting events with representatives from other nations and, up until the mid-1930s, played an important role in the International Confederation of Students. However, after the war in Ethiopia, they distanced themselves from the international university movement, nurturing relations solely with Nazi Germany and very few other nations. Student diplomacy, indeed, followed the more general evolution of Italian international relations. Using records housed in the Central State Archive as well as the Historical Diplomatic Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the paper proposes to analyse the role played by university sport in the fascist regime’s foreign policy and highlight both its impact and limitations.