Understanding COVID-19: A Hybrid Threat and Its Impact on Sport Mega-Events. A Focus on Japan and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Solomon Imoudu Ilevbare,Gayle Mcpherson

doi:10.3389/fspor.2022.720591

Solomon Imoudu Ilevbare, Gayle Mcpherson

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.720591

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Abstract

The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 affected the sports industry with the cancellation of many professional sports competitions worldwide. Thus, the postponement and organization of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games behind closed doors became a significant disruption to the global sports landscape. In this paper, we present a novel, conceptual discussion, signifying and defining the pandemic via the concept of international security as a hybrid threat. We associated the term hybrid threat to clarify better the difficult times facing sport mega-events. First, the paper proffers that the COVID-19 pandemic is a form of hybrid threat while reflecting on the connected implications of using sport as a soft power tool for nations. Secondly, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on sport mega-events globally and explain the implications of COVID-19 on the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympic Games. This paper although drawing on some figures associated with COVID-19 and the Tokyo Olympic Games presents a theoretical contribution to knowledge in the area of sport mega events, soft power and hybrid threat. We outline how the threats, triggered by the pandemic, have impeded a successful Olympic Games and clarify how these threats have affected Japan's opportunity to use the Games as a soft power tool, which is the paper's key contribution to the field.

Highlights

This paper presents a conceptual discussion of the term hybrid threat and offers a reconceptualization of the term to include COVID-19, going on to reveal how COVID-19 as a hybrid threat affected Japan’s ability to use the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a soft power tool to leverage the Games to their best advantage
We suggest a new definition or re-conceptualization of hybrid threat as it relates to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games derived from this evidence
This paper has taken a novel approach to conceptualize the effects of COVID-19 as having connected similarities with the term hybrid threat

Summary

What Is a Hybrid Threat?

This paper presents a conceptual discussion of the term hybrid threat and offers a reconceptualization of the term to include COVID-19, going on to reveal how COVID-19 as a hybrid threat affected Japan’s ability to use the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a soft power tool to leverage the Games to their best advantage. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) recent definition of hybrid threat includes propaganda, deception, sabotage and other non-military tactics as agents of destabilization, and states they will defend the alliance and all allies against any threat, whether conventional or Hybrid (NATO, 2021). The conceptualization of hybrid threat by the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) highlights the lack of clarity and ambiguity in its definition of hybrid threat They point that hybrid threat refers to actions conducted by state or non-state actors, whose goal is to undermine or harm a target by influencing its decision-making at the local, regional, state, or institutional level, for example, in the political, economic, military, civil, or information domains (CoE, 2021). We suggest a new definition or re-conceptualization of hybrid threat as it relates to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games derived from this evidence

Definitions and Similarities of Hybrid Threat

Addressing the Traditional Definition of Threats and Security

Findings

CONCLUSION