Sport as a diplomatic resource: the case of South Korea, 1970-2017

ABSTRACT

As a consequence of the growing awareness of the limitations of an over-reliance on the deployment of hard power, governments have shown an increasing willingness to add soft power strategies to their portfolio of diplomatic resources with sport emerging as a major element. The aim of this study is to analyse the utilisation of sport as a part of soft power strategies in South Korea and how the strategies developed over the period from the late 1970s to 2017. The research adopted a qualitative case study research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the analysis of relevant, but mainly governmental, documentary sources. Among the key findings of the research were that: a) the use of sport soft power for diplomatic purposes by the South Korean government was a development of the use of sport in connection with domestic political objectives; b) the range and sophistication of sport soft power initiatives increased steadily over the 40 year period; c) the deployment of sport soft power was strongly influenced by South Korea’s regional geopolitical environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport Diplomacy
• sport Policy
• soft Power
• sport Soft Power
• sport Mega-events

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A team of international experts from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Sweden have reached the clear conclusion that the ROK’s Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo (Park 2010). However, North Korea denied that it was responsible for the sinking and China and Russia dismissed the official scenario presented by South Korea (Snyder and Byun 2011).

2. The new business model using the internet-based network system.

3. The total investment includes only the government funds and national sports promotional funds. Since 2009, the national sports promotional funds dramatically increased compared to the government funds and in 2016 its proportion was over 90% of the total funding of sports policy.

4. A North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist in Mt. Kumgang tourist region. Mt. Kumgang is currently located in the DPRK and this event occurred during a time when ROK tourists were welcomed to DPRK tourist sites. After this event, this type of soft diplomacy is no longer practised.