Stefan Huebner has produced a fascinating volume that will interest scholars of the Cold War in Asia. Huebner starts before World War II, with the establishment of the Far Eastern Championship Games and the Western Asiatic Games, and the role in Pan-Asian sport played by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), which wanted to use international sport in service of Western Protestant Christianity's “civilizing mission,” particularly in the U.S.-controlled Philippines. The bulk of the book focuses on Pan-Asian sport during the Cold War, specifically the Asian Games, which were first held in New Delhi in 1951. Huebner carries the story through to 1974, when the Seventh Asian Games were staged in Tehran. In between, Asian Games were hosted by the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand (twice).
As that roster of host countries suggests, the Cold War was an issue in all of these Games. Among the major political actors with...