https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8180-5710
![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
The activities undertaken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to realize the Olympic Truce initiative during the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998 offer a great opportunity to analyze how the IOC leadership communicated with the UN officials and political leaders of states. These endeavors included an attempt to secure vast support for the Olympic Truce resolution during the Nagano Olympics in the UN General Assembly (GA) and an attempt to secure the observance of the Olympic Truce in the light of the situation in Iraq and its conflict with the UN over the weapon of mass destruction inspections. In reference to both goals, specific patterns included communication through the intermediation of Olympic officials and communication directly by the IOC leadership. The Olympic Truce exemplifies how an international non-governmental organization, in pursuit of realizing its public diplomacy goals, engages in activities typical for traditional diplomacy.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Some scholars express doubts concerning the ancient Olympic Truce. According to Mark Golden, there is no evidence that wars stopped for the Olympic festival. Mark Golden, ‘War and Peace in the Ancient and Modern Olympics’, Greece & Rome 58, no. 1 (2011): 6-7.
2 Konstantinos Georgiadis and Angelos Syrigos, ‘Introduction’, in Olympic Truce: Sport as a Platform for Peace, ed. Konstantinos Georgiadis and Angelos Syrigos (Athens: International Olympic Truce Centre, 2009), 17.
3 Sigmund Loland and Andreas Selliaas, ‘The Olympic Truce - the Ideal and the Reality’, in Olympic Truce: Sport as a Platform for Peace, ed. Konstantinos Georgiadis and Angelos Syrigos (Athens: International Olympic Truce Centre, 2009), 67.
4 Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 15, no. 6 (2012).
5 Ramón Spaaij, ‘Olympic rings of peace? The Olympic movement, peacemaking and intercultural understanding’, Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 15, no. 6 (2012): 766.
6 Rachel Briggs, Helen McCarthy, and Alexis Zorbas, 16 Days: The Role of the Olympic Truce in the Toolkit for Peace (London: Demos, 2004), 22.
7 See: Michał Kobierecki, Sports diplomacy: Sports in the Diplomatic Activities of States and Non-State Actors (Lanham: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), 264.
8 Maurice Roche, ‘The Olympics and “Global Citizenship”’, Citizenship Studies 6, no. 2 (2002): 176.
9 Roland Burke, ‘Peace: The United Nations, the International Olympic Committee, and the Renovation of the Olympic Truce’, in The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights, ed. Barbara J. Keys (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2019), 99.
10 International conflicts at the time of the Olympic Games are not extraordinary. For example, there were conflicts in Afghanistan during the Salt Lakes City games in 2002, in Georgia during the Beijing games in 2008, or in Ukraine during the Sochi 2014 games. International relations were also very tense during the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in connection to the threat of the Russian invasion against Ukraine. Russia eventually breached the Olympic Truce, now lasting until seven days after the Paralympic Games, when it invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
11 James Pamment, New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century: A Comparative Study of Policy and Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 1.
12 Nancy Snow, ‘Rethinking Public Diplomacy’, in Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, ed. Nancy Snow and Philip M. Taylor (New York: Routledge, 2009), 6.
13 Crocker Snow Jr, ‘Public diplomacy practitioners: a changing cast of characters’, Journal of Business Strategy 27, no 3 (2006): 20.
14 Jan Melissen, ‘The New Public Diplomacy: Between Theory and Practice’, in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, ed. Jan Melissen (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 12; Ellen Huijgh, ‘Public Diplomacy’, in The SAGE Handbook of Diplomacy, ed. Costas M. Constantinou, Pauline Kerr and Paul Sharp (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2016), 441–2.
15 Aaron Beacom and Ian Brittain, ‘Public Diplomacy and the International Paralympic Committee: Reconciling the Roles of Disability Advocate and Sports Regulator’, Diplomacy & Statecraft 27, no. 2 (2016): 226.
16 Brian Hocking, ‘Multistakeholder Diplomacy: Foundations, Forms, Functions and Frustrations’, in Multistakeholder Diplomacy: Challenges and Opportunities, ed. Jovan Kurbalija and Valentin Katrandjiev (Malta–Geneva: DiploFoundation, 2006), 13, 17.
17 Rhonda S. Zaharna, ‘Network Purpose, Network Design: Dimensions of Network and Collaborative Public Diplomacy’, in Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift, ed. Rhonda S. Zaharna, Amelia Arsenault and Ali Fisher (New York: Routledge 2013), 175.
18 See Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (London: Red Globe, 2012); Hans Morgenthau, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2005).
19 Rebecca Adler-Nissen, ‘Diplomatic Agency’, in The SAGE Handbook of Diplomacy, ed. Costas M. Constantinou, Pauline Kerr and Paul Sharp (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2016), 93.
20 See Michele M. Betsill and Elisabeth Corell, ‘Introduction to NGO Diplomacy’. in NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations, ed. Michele M. Betsill and Elisabeth Corell (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2008), 1-17.
21 See Kobierecki, Sports diplomacy; Aaron Beacom, International Diplomacy and the Olympic Movement: The New Mediators (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Steven J. Jackson and Marcell C. Dawson, ‘The IOC-State-Corporate Nexus: Corporate Diplomacy and the Olympic coup d’état’, South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation 39, nos. 1-2 (2017): 101-11.
22 Jean-Loup Chappelet and Brenda Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System: The Governance of World Sport (London: Routledge, 2008), 107.
23 David Black and Byron Peacock, ‘Sport and Diplomacy’, in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy, ed. Andrew F. Cooper, Jorge Heine, and Ramesh Thakur (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 709.
24 The corruption scandal in the IOC erupted over awarding the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to Salt Lake City, leading to the expulsion of several IOC Members. Chappelet and Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System, xiv, 20; IOC, Members, https://olympics.com/ioc/members (accessed September 2, 2021).
25 Chappelet and Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System, 5.
26 IOC, Olympic Charter, in force as from July 17, 2020, Lausanne 2020, 11, 15-7, https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf (accessed September 13, 2022).
27 See Daniel S. Mason, Lucie Thibault, and Laura Misener, ‘An Agency Theory Perspective on Corruption in Sport: The Case of the International Olympic Committee’, Journal of Sport Management 20, no. 1 (2006): 52–73; Stephen Wenn, Robert Barney, and Scott Martyn, Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2011); John Hoberman, ‘The Myth of Sport as a Peace-Promoting Political Force’, The SAIS Review of International Affairs XXXI, no. 1 (2011): 21–2; Björn Langenbach and Jörg Krieger, ‘Emergence of the Environment Policy of the International Olympic Committee: A Historical Analysis’, Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies 11, no. 1 (2017): 15-32.
28 Jean-Loup Chappelet, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: A New Frontier for the International Olympic Committee’, in Social Responsibility and Sustainability in Sports, ed. Plácido Rodríguez, Stefan Késenne and Helmut Dietl (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, 2009), 18; Will Jennings, Olympic Risks (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), 218.
29 Kobierecki, Sports diplomacy, 227-230.
30 See Jean-Loup Chappelet, ‘The Olympic fight against match-fixing’, Sport in Society 18, no. 10 (2015): 1260-1272; Caroline Meier, ‘The early relationship between UNESCO and the IOC: Considerations – Controversies – Cooperation’, Diagoras: International Academic Journal on Olympic Studies 1 (2017): 229-248; Chappelet and Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System, 10.
31 Burleson, ‘The Ancient Olympic Truce in Modern-day Peacekeeping’, Sport in Society 15, no. 6 (2012): 800.
32 Minutes of the 85th Session of the International Olympic Committee, Rome, May 27-29, 1982, 24-6, 101, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, IOC Historical Archives, Olympic Studies Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland (hereafter OSC).
33 Kobierecki, Sports diplomacy, 225.
34 Minutes of the 86th Session of the International Olympic Committee, New Delhi, March 26-28, 1983, 22, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, OSC.
35 Beacom, International Diplomacy and the Olympic Movement, 46-7.
36 Appeal by the International Olympic Committee for an ‘Olympic Truce’, Annex 30 of Minutes of the 99th IOC Session, Barcelona, July 21-23, 1992, 156-7, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, OSC.
37 Fékrou Kidane, ‘Introduction’, n.d., Olympic Truce File: UN - IOC, 3, Organisation des nations unies (ONU): Olympic Truce File, E-RE02-ONU/012, OSC.
38 United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 48/11: Observance of the Olympic Truce, A/RES/48/11, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/197368#record-files-collapse-header (accessed September 13, 2022); United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 49/29: The Olympic Ideal, A/RES/49/29, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/166240#record-files-collapse-header (accessed September 13, 2022).
39 Jim Parry, ‘The Religio Athletae, Olympism and Peace’, in Olympic Truce: Sport as a Platform for Peace, ed. Konstantinos Georgiadis and Angelos Syrigos (Athens: International Olympic Truce Centre, 2009), 45-46.
40 Kidane, ‘Introduction’, 4; Letter, Yasushi Akashi to Juan Antonio Samaranch, March 2, 1994, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1994-1996 - C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/055-26C, OSC.
41 Minutes of the 102nd IOC Session, Lillehammer, February 8-10, 1994, 22-3, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, OSC.
42 Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Kofi Annan, Lausanne, January 11, 1994, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1994-1996 - C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/055-26C, OSC.
43 Minutes of the 104th IOC Session, Budapest, June 15-18, 1995, Digitalized documents, OSC; Minutes of the 105th IOC Session, Atlanta, July 15-18, 1996, 206, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, OSC.
44 Sandra Collins, ‘The Fragility of Asian National Identity in the Olympic Games’, in Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China, ed. Monroe E. Price and Daniel Dayan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), 197-198; Atsushi Tajima, ‘“Amoral universalism”: mediating and staging global and local in the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games’, Critical Studies in Media Communication 21, no. 3 (2004): 247, 256.
45 Letters, Juan Antonio Samaranch to IOC Members from Greece (Lambis Nikolaou), Canada (Carol Anne Letheren, Richard W. Pound), Belgium (Jacques Rogge, Prince Alexandre de Mérode), Mexico (Mario Vazquez Raña), Chile (Sergio Santander Fantini), Italy (Mario Pescante), Venezuela (Flor Isava-Fonesca), Great Britain (Craig Reeddie), Thailand (Nat Indrapana), Uganda (Francis W. Nyangweso), Pakistan (Syed Shahid Ali), India (Ashwini Kumar), Finland (Peter Tallberg), Hungary (Pal Schmitt), DPRK (Ung Chang), Cuba (Reynaldo Gonzalez Lopez), Libya (Bashir M. Attarabulsi) and Presidents of NOCs from Ukraine (Valery Borzov), Uruguay (Julio César Maglione), Brazil (Carlos Arthur Nuzman), Syria (Mohammad Samih Moudallal), Jordan (Quaseem Abu Aun), Malta (Gino Camilleri Abu Aun), Singapore (Ninig Hong Yeo), Estonia (Tiit Nuudi), Iran (Mostafa Hashemi Taba), Cambodia (Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh), Egypt (Mounir Sabet), Sri Lanka (Fernando Hemasini), Vietnam (Ha Quang Du), Yugoslavia (Dragan Kicanovic), Kirghizstan (Eshim Koutmanaliev), Sao Tome and Principe (Antonio Manuel Dos Santos Aguiar), El Salvador (Melecio Eduardo Rivera Burgos), November 18, 1997, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs, 1997-1997 (hereafter OT: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs), C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/300, OSC.
46 Letter, Richard Pound to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 18, 1997, OT: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/300, OSC.
47 Letter, Teng Chuan Lau to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 27, 1997; Letter, Valery Borzov to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 25, 1997, OT: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/300, OSC.
48 Letter, Carol Anne Letheren to Juan Antonio Samaranch, December 4, 1997; Letter, Quaseem Abu Aun to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 25, 1997; Letter, Nat Indrapana to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 24, 1997; Letter, Mounir Sabet to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 23, 1997; Letter, Creig Reeddie to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 19, 1997, OT: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/300, OSC.
49 Letter, Dragan Kicanovic to Juan Antonio Samaranch, November 19, 1997, OT: Correspondence with IOC Members and NOCs, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/300, OSC.
50 Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Hisashi Owada, November 12, 1997, IOC Historical Archives, Lausanne, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Correspondence and report, 1997-1998, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299; Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Sergey Lavrov, November 12, 1997, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Correspondence and report, 1997-1998 (hereafter OT: Correspondence and report), C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
51 Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Hennadiy Uvodenko, February 5, 1998, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC; Letter, Hennadiy Uvodenko to Juan Antonio Samaranch, February 4, 1998, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC; The Secretary-General Message to the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, February 7-22, 1998, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
52 IOC, The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution in favour of the Olympic Ideal, November 26, 1997, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC; Minutes of the 107th IOC Session, Nagano, February 3-5, 1998, 96, Digitalized documents, Comité International Olympique – Session 1894–2013, OSC.
53 Implementation of the “Olympic Truce” Project during the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano: Report of the Director of International Cooperation and Communication (Confidential): Meeting of the IOC Executive Board, June 2-4, 1998, Seville, Spain, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
54 United Nations, Press Release GA/9362: GENERAL ASSEMBLY URGES ‘OLYMPIC TRUCE’ DURING WINTER GAMES IN NAGANO, JAPAN, November 25, 1997, https://www.un.org/press/en/1997/19971125.GA9362.html (accessed January 25, 2022).
55 Nicolien van Luijk, ‘The International Olympic Committee: A United Nations Permanent Observer of post-politics?’, International Area Studies Review 21, no. 2 (2018): 134.
56 Letter from IOC Director Fékrou Kidane to Shinichi Nishizawa from NAOC, January 8, 1998, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
57 Sipri, Fact Sheet: Iraq: The UNSCOM Experience, October 1998, 2, 4. https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/files/FS/SIPRIFS9810.pdf (accessed September 8, 2021).
58 Alfred B. Prados, CRS Report for Congress: Iraq Crisis: U.S. and Allied Forces, September 2, 1998, 98-120 F, https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19980902_98-120F_0c37d0207797424eb19f04bbcd5e2832ace64bc2.pdf (accessed September 8, 2021).
59 Solemn Appeal by the President of the General Assembly HE Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko in Connection with the Observance of the Olympic Truce, attachment to letter, Hennadiy Uvodenko to Juan Antonio Samaranch, February 4, 1998), Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1997-2000, C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/056-26C, OSC; Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Hennadiy Uvodenko, February 5, 1998, OT: Correspondence and report, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC; The Secretary-General Message to the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, February 3, 1998, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1997-2000, C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/056-26C, OSC.
60 Letters, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, Amir of Bahrain Sheikh Isa bin Sulaman al-Khalifa, President of the Republic of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien, President of the People’s Republic of China Jiang Zemin, President of the Republic of Costa Rica José Maria Figueres Olsen, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, President of the Republic of France Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic of Gambia Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, Federal Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, Prime Minister of Greece Constantino Simitis, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto, President of the Republic of Kenya Daniel T. Arap Moi, President of the Republic of Korea Kim Dae-jung, Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir, President of the Republic of Portugal Jorge Sampaio, President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, King of Saudi Arabia Fahd Bin And Al Aziz, President of the Republic of Slovenia Milan Kucan, President of the Republic of South Africa Nelson Mandela, Prime Minister of Spain José Maria Aznar, Prime Minister of Sweden Göran Persson, President of the Republic of Turkey Suleyman Demirel, President of the USA William Jefferson Clinton, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tony Blair, pope John Paul II, February 10-12, 1998, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Minutes from the UN, letters to heads of states and government declarations, 1997-1998 (hereafter OT: Minutes, letters and declarations), C-J02-1998/75, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/301, OSC.
61 Letters, Fékrou Kidane to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations of the State of Bahrain Jassim Mohammed Bualley, Brazil Celso Luiz Nuñez Amorin, People’s Republic of China Hua-sun Quian, Costa Rica Fernando Berrocal, Gambia Momodou Kebba Jallow, Japan Hisashi Owada, Kenya Njuguna M. Mahugu, Portugal Antonio Monteiro, the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Slovenia Danilo Türk, Sweden Hans Dahlgren, the United States William Richardson, the Great Britain and Northern Ireland John Weston, February 16-17, 1998, OT: Minutes, letters and declarations, 1997-1998, C-J02-1998/75, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/301, OSC.
62 See Letter, Jacques Rogge to George Papandreou, August 23, 2001, Olympic Truce: Correspondence, 1986-2000, F-A01/3, F-A02-TREOL/001; Letter, George Papandreou to Jacques Rogge, July 30, 2001, Olympic Truce: Correspondence, 1986-2000, F-A01/3, F-A02-TREOL/001, OSC.
63 Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Saddam Hussein, Nagano, February 10, 1998, OT: Minutes, letters and declarations, C-J02-1998/75, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/301, OSC.
64 Fax, Fékrou Kidane to Oudaï Hussein, February 10, 1998, OT: Minutes, letters and declarations, C-J02-1998/75, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/301, OSC.
65 Implementation of the “Olympic Truce” Project during the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano: Report of the Director of International Cooperation and Communication (Confidential): Meeting of the IOC Executive Board, June 2-4, 1998, Seville, Spain, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Correspondence and report, 1997-1998, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
66 Letter, Tony Blair to Juan Antonio Samaranch, February 19, 1998, OT: Correspondence and report, 1997-1998, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
67 Sipri, Fact Sheet.
68 Memorandum of Understanding between United Nations and Republic of Iraq, February 23, 1998, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1997-2000, C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/056-26C, OSC.
69 Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Kofi Annan, February 26, 1998, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1997-2000, C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/056-26C, OSC; Letter, Juan Antonio Samaranch to Kofi Annan, April 17, 1998, Organisations internationals: ONU - Organisation des Nations Unies – general – fre, 1997-2000, C026/03-02, OU.MO.A.026.03.02, 241/056-26C, OSC.
70 See Kobierecki, Sports diplomacy, 233; Sergey Radchenko, ‘It's Not Enough to Win: the Seoul Olympics and the Roots of North Korea's Isolation’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 29, no. 9 (2012): 1250.
71 Implementation of the “Olympic Truce” Project during the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano: Report of the Director of International Cooperation and Communication (Confidential): Meeting of the IOC Executive Board, June 2-4, 1998, Seville, Spain, Olympic Truce during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano: Correspondence and report, 1997-1998, C-J-02-1998/74, OU.VC.A.010.03.04, C-J02-1998/299, OSC.
72 See Zaharna, ‘Network Purpose, Network Design’, 175.
73 See Jere Longman, ‘THE XVIII WINTER GAMES; A Display of Culture and Hope Opens Games’, The New York Times, February 7, 1998, A1; BBC News, ‘Sport: Winter Olympics 98: ‘Best organised’ games close’, February 22, 1998, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/winter_olympics_98/59012.stm (accessed January 26, 2022).
74 The Organizing Committee for the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, Nagano 1998, The XVIII Olympic Winter Games Official Report, vol. I Planning and Support (Nagano: NAOC, 1999), 12, 14.
75 ‘Olympic Blizzard’, Wired, February 9, 1998, https://www.wired.com/1998/02/olympic-blizzard/ (accessed September 14, 2022).
76 See IOC, IOC President reiterates role of sport for dialogue and peace, June 3, 2021, https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-reiterates-role-of-sport-for-dialogue-and-peace (accessed January 26, 2022); Around the Rings, ‘On the Scene – Peace and Sport Conference Opens in Monaco’, July 12, 2021, https://www.infobae.com/aroundtherings/articles/2021/07/12/on-the-scene-peace-and-sport-conference-opens-in-monaco/ (accessed January 26, 2022).
77 Karolos Grohmann, ‘IOC to support Korea peace talks with sports initiatives: Bach’, Reuters, May 3, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-ioc-koreas/ioc-to-support-korea-peace-talks-with-sports-initiatives-bach-idUSKBN1I42DQ (accessed January 26, 2022).
78 Jere Longman, ‘OLYMPICS: NAGANO 1998; I.O.C. Asks White House To Honor Peace Pledge’, The New York Times, February 4, 1998, C1.
79 See Melissen, ‘The New Public Diplomacy’, 3.
80 See Zaharna, ‘Network Purpose, Network Design’, 175.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michał Marcin Kobierecki
Michał Marcin Kobierecki, PhD with habilitation, is an associate professor in the Department of Political Theory and Thought, Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz. His research interests include sports diplomacy, politics and sport, nation branding and public diplomacy with a specific focus on the use of sport. He is principal investigator of the research project Consensual and branding role of sport in diplomatic activities of states and non-state actors funded by the National Science Center, Poland, and author of numerous books, chapters, and scientific articles.