This month, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games have once again brought people from all over the globe together for a healthy display of athletic prowess. The games, which feature more than 2,600 competitors from 82 disparate nations, offer a tantalizing glimpse at a world very different from our own — a world where political differences are settled on the hockey rink instead of the battlefield.

Peace in our time, or even in our great-grandchildren’s lifetimes, is probably an impossible dream, but for a few brief weeks every two years, countries can settle old scores through nonviolent means. Political grudges can be satisfied by reaching for a gold medal instead of a trigger and that’s what makes the Olympic Games so vital for cynics like me.

Athletic diplomacy will not bring an end to tensions in the Middle East or famine in Africa, but it can be a safe outlet for the pent-up aggression of nation states that might otherwise go to war to get some respect.

In the distant future, the Olympics may serve as a model for a more peaceful geopolitical system, but for now, it is enough to see us all playing nice for a few weeks.