Understanding South Korea’s Use of Sports Mega-Events for Domestic, Regional and International Soft Power

Jonathan Grix,Hyungmin Kim,Joonoh Brian Jeong

doi:10.3390/soc11040144

Jonathan Grix, Hyungmin Kim + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11040144

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on ‘soft power’ by focusing on East Asia as a region gaining in political and economic significance; equally, we highlight the role sports mega-events play in the region’s most powerful states’ soft power strategies. For the purpose of this paper, we focus on South Korea’s soft power strategy and how the hosting of major sporting events has become a central part of this. We introduce both a novel tripartite approach to the study of the motives behind hosting sports mega-events, along with new, empirical data on the chosen case of South Korea. Our findings strengthen the notion that an explanation of why states seek to host major sports events can be better understood by considering the domestic, regional and international dimensions to capture the complexities behind such decisions.

Highlights

Regional and International SoftIn recent decades, global institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, UnitedNations and the North Atlantic Trade Agreement, have governed the liberal world order, underpinned as they are, by Western norms and values
Explains Wilson [38] (p. 287), using the example of Russia and China, seeks to ‘construct a national identity that maintains the current regime and contests Western dominance in the prevailing international order’. This is not to suggest that South Korea is similar to Russia or China in their governance or soft power aims; the point here is to underscore the different types of soft power strategy that can be employed
We focused on a case study of the use of sports megaevents by South Korea, introducing and analysing the case studies of the Seoul Olympics

Summary

Introduction

Global institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, United. Subsequent sections analyse the following sports mega-events hosted by South Korea: the 1988 (Seoul Olympics), co-hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan and the more recent hosting of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The significance of this piece lies in its application of the tripartite approach to understanding state rationales for hosting sports mega-events and in providing new empirical data to shed light on South Korea’s use of SMEs, especially in 2002 and 2018, for domestic, regional and international purposes

Soft Power and Sport in East Asia

Understanding ‘Soft Power’

Methodology

South Korea’s Rationale behind Hosting the 1988 Seoul Olympics

South Korea’s Rationale behind Co-Hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup

Conclusions