Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy alumna reflects on The World Cup in Boston
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is well underway, with several games played at Gillette Stadium—called Boston Stadium for the World Cup. Boston hosted the Scottish Men’s National Football Team, bringing with them their devoted fans, the Tartan Army.
Eshani Chakrabarti, F25, reflected on the experience and the value of cultural diplomacy.
On June 20th, I had the chance to perform at the FIFA Fan Festival in Boston City Hall Plaza, steps away from the Cradle of Liberty. Alongside my former classmate Yuto Miyazawa, F25, from The Fletcher School, we performed classic American rock and roll, including “Dirty Water,” “Hotel California,” and “Fortunate Son.” Joined by jerseys of every color, we welcomed visitors from Ghana, Haiti, Scotland, Sweden, Iraq, and Morocco to Massachusetts and started a City Hall singalong of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” thanking the crowd for being in Boston.
It was once customary to sing the Scottish song, “Auld Lang Syne,” when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve. Over time, the tradition faded, we forgot the words, and we stopped passing it down. Years from now, people will remember the summer when the world came to the birthplace of the American Revolution. Cities are often remembered for moments like these, the World’s Fairs, the Olympic Games, and the World Cup, where we are reminded how we are alike. For a few weeks in the summer of 2026, Boston was one of those places and the Tartan Army reminded us who we are and reminded the rest of the country what we could be.
Having worked for Sister Cities at the World Expo in Osaka Japan, I’ve seen how something like a Boston traffic cone placed on the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow can become a symbol of friendship. The bond between Boston and Halifax endures to this day, commemorated through a Christmas tree gifted from Nova Scotia each year in remembrance of the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and Boston’s response in its aftermath. More than a century later, it remains a reminder of the enduring friendship between our two cities. In that same spirit, I hope the friendships forged with the Tartan Army in Massachusetts endure long after the moment itself has passed.
My capstone project concentrated on cultural diplomacy and argued how American soft power must be deliberately reimagined to restore and strengthen the nation's international reputation. Joseph S. Nye Jr, who coined the term soft power, believed that although American influence has experienced periods of decline, it has repeatedly recovered through the resilience of American culture and the enduring appeal of its people and values. Soft power is strengthened through the people-to-people encounters that turn brief moments into lasting relationships. As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, this moment reflects our history and serves as a mirror for who we are still called to become.
Working at the Expo, the United States Youth Ambassadors were something like the Tartan Army in Osaka. World fairs have long served as strategic instruments of soft power, using cuisine, music, and other forms of cultural diplomacy to showcase national identity. Alexander Graham Bell showcased the telephone at the 1876 Philadelphia World Expo. The centerpiece of the U.S. Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025 was a moon rock from Apollo 11. Osaka had previously hosted the Expo in 1970, shortly after the moon landing, and visitors queued for hours to see the moon rock for just a few minutes. The most moving moments of the 2025 Expo were when Japanese grandparents who had seen the rock 50 years prior, rose from their wheelchairs to catch a glimpse of this piece of American history.
Massachusetts doesn’t get enough credit as a deeply multicultural place with strong diaspora communities, something that was on display when we welcomed the world to Boston during the World Cup. I once visited Edinburgh and made a wish on the Stone of Scone. Maybe I’ll get to go back someday, perhaps for an NFL game in Scotland, and make another wish: that America’s hometown always feels like home, and that the friendships formed here last long after the final whistle.
Eshani Chakrabarti is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy program at The Fletcher School. At the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan, she served as a youth ambassador at the U.S. Pavilion, representing Massachusetts. She is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and has worked as a traffic anchor throughout New England for iHeartRadio. Her master's thesis, “Reimagining American Soft Power: Murrow, Museums, and Modern World Fairs,” explores cultural diplomacy through global gatherings such as the Olympics, World Cups, and World Expos.