Editor's Notebook: Can World Cup Fever Soothe World's Ills?

June 18, 2010— -- Watching international pariah North Korea take the field at the World Cup the other day, we were reminded of a notion nearly as old as the game itself: that soccer not only entertains, it promotes fellowship and harmony, even peace.

That might be difficult to imagine in this country, where the sport (Saturday kids' games notwithstanding) has never evoked the passions it does in other countries. But World Cup soccer – even more than Olympic sport – has been credited with pacifying peoples. Four years ago the rock superstar and activist Bono said the World Cup "closes the schools, closes the shops, closes a city and stops a war."

Many organizations exist to promote this idea. One, "Soccer For World Peace," calls soccer "a vehicle for peace…goal by goal, season by season."

Is that a stretch? Well, you don't have to be a vuvuzela-wielding addict to feel the joy, or catch the fever of the games.

Here in New York, flags and World Cup banners have been draped outside bars and restaurants; the New York Observer carries a helpful map of more than 50 soccer-watching establishments, together with the likely allegiances of patrons. Slovenian fans gathered at an Upper East Side café for Slovenian pastries and their country's opening match with Algeria (the Slovenes won, 1-0); Ghanaians danced on Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue after a late, game-winning goal against Serbia; and an English colleague here at ABC had his children paint the white-with-red-cross flag of England in his window (a brave thing, I thought, on the eve of the U.S.-England contest).

So the games bring camaraderie, and joy. But can they really stop wars?

Those who say "yes" make a simple case: This most global of games produces global good feeling, and an outlet for aggression that might otherwise play out in nasty ways. How can you fight, the argument goes, during such a nail-biting, soccer-rich time?

During the World War I Christmas truce in 1914, English and German soldiers left their trenches, found a ball, and played a match. (Germany won). A half-century later, troops in the Biafran war arranged a three-day truce so they could watch Pele, probably the greatest to ever play the game. In 1990, factions in Lebanon took a break from fratricide to watch the World Cup. And today, coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan often arrange games for locals as a way to improve ties and boost security.