Sport as a catalyst for cooperation: Why sport dialogue between the two Koreas succeeds in some cases but not in others

Abstract

There is a wide belief that sport has a positive utility in the diplomatic arena and can be used as a catalyst for cooperation. The very instrumental effectiveness of sport gave a birth to the idea that sport can be used effectively to promote contact between or among hostile countries. This idea was adopted by the governments of the two Koreas and a sport agenda was used as a pretext for initiating official dialogues between the two countries. Throughout the history of South–North dialogues, we can find some cases of success and other cases of failure. Some successful dialogues brought concrete results of cooperation, while other unsuccessful dialogues ended only as pre-steps that did not develop into cooperation or negotiation. Thus our attention should go to two directions. One is “what is the main force which drove the two Koreas to open a sport dialogue?” The other is to find out “why sport dialogues between the two Koreas succeed in some cases but not others”. This article aims to review the role of sport as an instrument or a catalyst for cooperation. The author divides the whole period of dialogues into several phases and examines the role of sport. After reviewing the success and failure of dialogues, the author argues for sport to be used as a tool for dialogue, the strategic choice of the actors being the prerequisite. The author emphasizes that strategic choices made by the governments of the two Koreas play an important role when casting sport as an instrument to develop relations, which is explained with the framework of simple 2 × 2 games. In line with this, this article explores the strategic thoughts of the two Koreas by reviewing the political intentions, situations of the time, contextual connectivity and strategic thinkings of two Koreas.