Why has the Olympic Truce, which has been successfully implemented more than once, become so difficult now?
2024-08-07
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On July 27, people gathered near the site of the Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, a city in the central Gaza Strip. Photo by Rizek Abduljawad, Xinhua News Agency
As Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, wrote in his poem "Ode to Sport", "O Sport, you are peace!", the Olympic Games have been associated with peace since their inception. Since the end of the 20th century, the Olympic Games have further become a grand event that integrates sports and Olympic ideals and promotes world peace through the Olympic Truce. The tradition of the Olympic Truce originated in ancient Greece. This tradition was restored in the modern International Olympic Games in 1992. Since then, truces have been achieved many times to promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
In November 2023, the 78th United Nations General Assembly adopted the Olympic Truce Resolution for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, stipulating that the truce period will be from 7 days before the opening of the Paris Olympic Games to 7 days after the closing of the Paralympic Games, that is, from July 19 to September 15, 2024. When French President Macron visited the Olympic Village of the Paris Olympic Games on July 22, he called for a "global truce" during the Olympic Games.
However, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continue to drag on, with no sign of a peaceful resolution in the short term. On August 5, Ukrainian President Zelensky announced that Western-aided F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine and were put into combat; and Hamas leader Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran a few days ago, making Iran's revenge on Israel imminent. The Olympic Truce once again encountered real obstacles and tests.
The past, present and successful practice of the Olympic Truce
Ancient Greece was a martial nation, and its national form was a dispersed small country based on city-states. Territorial disputes and political struggles frequently occurred between the city-states. In view of the high demands on the physical fitness and physical quality of soldiers caused by continuous conflicts, sports competitions and competitions were regarded as an effective way to train soldiers. In 775 BC, ancient Greece was in the midst of a long-term city-state war. King Iphitos was worried that the ancient Greek kingdom would perish. After seeking help from the "prophet" Delphi, he decided to adopt the following strategy: hold sports competitions regularly and order the city-states to strictly cease fire during the competitions.
In the spring of 776 BC, the first Olympic Games were successfully held. The host city-state Iristo sent three heralds (theoroi) to various city-states to convey the news of the Games and asked them to abide by the Sacred Truce, which was the ancient "Olympic Truce": During the Games, the city-states must stop internal and external wars, and violent acts such as vendettas and robbery are also prohibited to ensure the safety of athletes, officials and spectators traveling to and from Olympia. [1] At that time, the Sacred Truce played a key role in extinguishing the flames of war between city-states and easing regional conflicts. The ancient Olympic Games were held 293 times, lasting 1,170 years. It was not until 393 AD that the Roman Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity as the state religion, believing that the ancient Olympic Games violated the tenets of Christianity and were pagan activities. The following year, he announced the abolition of the ancient Olympic Games.
After that, the Olympic Games fell silent for more than 1,500 years. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Coubertin, who was born into a French aristocratic family, witnessed the brutality of the war. After adulthood, Coubertin devoted himself to the revival of the Olympic movement and the promotion of the concept of peace. In 1889, he launched a series of conferences on sports and peace with the help of the Paris World Expo, and in 1890 he led the establishment of the Union of French Sports Associations (USFSA). In 1894, Coubertin organized the Paris (Olympic) Congress, and more than half of the 78 delegates who attended the congress had participated in the peace movement, and six of them had won the Nobel Peace Prize [2]. Coubertin always took peace and truce as the starting point for the revitalization of the Olympics. Under his promotion, the Olympic Games re-entered people's vision in the form of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, and the Olympic Truce also returned. For a period of time, the main form of the Olympic Truce was international initiatives and appeals proposed by the IOC.
After 1992, the International Olympic Committee saw the role of the truce in promoting the de-escalation of conflicts and realized that the truce needed stronger constraints to ensure its effectiveness. In 1993, the IOC submitted a formal application for the Olympic Truce to the United Nations General Assembly, which was successfully passed. This move added the protection and constraints of the General Assembly to the Olympic Truce and laid a historical foundation for the modern United Nations and the IOC to jointly achieve the Olympic Truce.
Today, the Olympic Truce is mainly achieved and ensured by two organizations: the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations. The host country of the Olympic Games proposes a truce resolution to the United Nations General Assembly, which is then passed by all countries in the United Nations General Assembly. During the agreement process, all countries supervise each other and urge implementation, which has become the main form of implementation of the Olympic Truce.
In the 29 modern (summer/winter) Olympic Games that have been held, the implementation of the Olympic Truce has shown different results. The 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics and the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics are two successful practices of the Olympic Truce. In these two cases, the path and historical process of the realization of the Olympic Truce are demonstrated.
During the Lillehammer Olympics, although there were still local conflicts in the world, the long-lasting Bosnian War saw a one-month truce. Even more gratifying was that, as Samaranch had hoped at the closing ceremony of the Lillehammer Olympics, in November 1995, the Bosnian Serb leaders and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina reached a ceasefire agreement, and the Olympic Truce actually lasted until after the Olympics. [3]
The Olympic Truce was achieved during the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics as a result of international diplomacy and sportsmanship. After the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 687, requiring Iraq to "destroy and remove biological, chemical and nuclear weapons; machinery and facilities used to develop them; and missile facilities with a range of more than 150 kilometers." However, in 1997, Iraq refused to allow UN observers and US weapons inspectors to enter the country for weapons inspections, and tensions between the United States and Iraq increased. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan conducted urgent diplomatic mediation.
At the same time, the Nagano Olympic Committee also made considerable diplomatic efforts to achieve the Olympic Truce. Japan also negotiated with the United States, hoping that the United States would avoid any form of military action against Iraq during the Winter Olympics. Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto communicated with US President Clinton on this matter. In response, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded to Japan's concerns, stating that the United States understood Japan's concerns about possible hostile actions during the Olympics and called on Japan to provide assistance to ensure that Iraq complied with the regulations on weapons inspections. In the end, the efforts of all parties at least avoided the United States from launching a military strike against Iraq during the Nagano Winter Olympics.
The successful implementation of the Olympic Truce at the Nagano Winter Olympics benefited from the leadership of the United Nations, the active advocacy of the International Olympic Committee, the diplomatic efforts of participating countries, and the universal appeal of the spirit of sports. Although the truce resolution itself is not binding, the peace concept it embodies and the broad support of the international community are sufficient to influence state behavior. [4] This case demonstrates the possibility of achieving temporary peace through diplomatic means and international cooperation in international crises.
One scholar concluded that the international community’s call for an Olympic Truce may have contributed to a more lasting peace, although the conditions for achieving such a peace have not yet been fully explored.[5]
How can the Olympic Truce be achieved?
The causal mechanism for the realization of the Olympic Truce is complex. Its realization can be attributed to the accumulation of individual emotions, or it can be gradually elevated to changes in collective perception, the result of national interactions and the common cognition of the international community.
1. Individual emotions: national hatred and the catharsis of competitive sports
Wars are often accompanied by hatred between different ethnic groups, but competitive sports provide a peaceful way to vent national emotions. Through the victory or defeat of competitions and the competition of sports results, the confrontational emotions and tensions between ethnic groups have been alleviated to a certain extent. During the Olympic Games, the exchanges and cooperation between athletes from different countries and cultures on the field help break stereotypes and enhance mutual understanding. [6] The spread of this sports spirit helps to reduce national hatred and weaken the emotional motivation for escalating conflicts within the country, thereby creating conditions for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
2. Collective Perception: Sense of Order and the Anti-Order Nature of War
As Kant said in his Perpetual Peace, the ultimate goal of human rationality is to achieve peaceful coexistence, and the Olympic Games are the embodiment of this "rationality". The sense of order advocated by the Olympic Truce is reflected in the strict compliance with the rules of competition and the unremitting pursuit of fair competition, which is in sharp contrast to the chaos and destructiveness of war. In the peaceful context of the Olympic Games, the chaotic nature of war is further highlighted, thereby enhancing the public's antipathy to war. During the Olympic Games, athletes from all over the world showed the positive outlook and friendly spirit of mankind in an environment of fair competition. The spread of this sense of order and peaceful spirit further strengthened the irrationality of war. At the national level, the choice of the power organs to escalate the war will be labeled with more "irrationality" and will face more doubts and opposition, thereby reducing the support for war within the country.
3. National Interaction: International Attention and International Reputation
Modern wars are often not isolated conflicts, but complex interactions involving mutual assistance among multiple countries. The Olympic Games are a worldwide sporting event. During the Olympic Games, people's attention is focused on sports events, and countries are willing to invest more resources and attention in the Olympic Games, which to a certain extent reduces attention and even assistance to the warring parties. The warring parties that lose international attention and support will also face domestic public pressure for peace, which provides a realistic basis for achieving the Olympic Truce. At the same time, because the Olympic Games are a symbol of peace and friendship, the international public opinion's yearning for peace and anti-war tendency will exert public pressure on the warring countries. Once someone chooses to escalate the war during the Olympic Games, it is very likely that they will be labeled as "warmongers" by the international community and will be more likely to be widely condemned by the international community.
The current dilemma and challenges of the Olympic Truce
The 2024 Paris Olympics is underway, however, the Ukrainian crisis is still ongoing and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from being resolved. Obviously, the UN General Assembly's Olympic Truce resolution has not stopped the flames of war. It can be seen that the call and initiative for the Olympic Truce has encountered greater practical resistance and suffering at the moment. This difficulty mainly stems from three factors: the complexity of international conflicts, the division of the international community, and the politicization of sports competitions.
1. International conflicts become more complex
Today, the complex situation of diversified international conflict subjects and conflict methods is not conducive to the achievement of the Olympic Truce. On the one hand, the Olympic Truce, which is based on the United Nations, has a stronger binding force on state actors (or conflict parties that are similar to state actors), but has less binding force on non-state actors. Taking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example, the intervention of a large number of international non-governmental armed forces and non-state actors has made ceasefire negotiations and mediation particularly difficult, limiting the effectiveness of the Olympic Truce. On the other hand, the Olympic Truce, which is based on the anti-war treaty, has a stronger binding force on conventional wars and less binding force on diversified new war methods. New conflict methods such as cognitive warfare and cyber warfare are widely used in the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which seriously affects the battlefield process and creates difficulties for the realization of the Olympic Truce.
2. Division of the International Community
The division of the international community is manifested in the gradual loss of consensus among international actors, which makes the spiritual basis for the conclusion of international peace treaties lost, making international treaties represented by the Olympic Truce more difficult to achieve. From the cases of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics and the Nagano Winter Olympics, it can be seen that the success of the Olympic Truce requires coordination and efforts from multiple parties in the international community, and needs to be achieved under the mutual supervision of countries and the cooperation between the International Olympic Committee and the host country. However, the development of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or between Palestine and Israel all demonstrates the lack of consensus in the international community. For example, in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel's representative to the United Nations openly tore up the UN Charter in the General Assembly. This move not only shows its contempt for the United Nations, but also reflects the differences in the international community on key issues and their solutions. This poses a huge challenge to the Olympic Truce, which relies on the United Nations and international cooperation.
3. Politicization of sports competitions
The politicization of sports competitions has excluded some countries from the Olympic system, causing the Olympic Truce to lose its original concept of "universal peace" and to some extent weakening the international reputation of the Olympic Truce. In recent years, the tendency of sports politicization has become increasingly obvious, especially reflected in the fact that Russia has been gradually marginalized and even excluded from the Olympic system in recent years. In the Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee explicitly disqualified the Russian and Belarusian national teams. It was not until the first half of 2024 that some rules were amended: individual athletes from Russia and Belarus can participate in the competition as neutrals, but are still not allowed to participate in the competition as countries. This policy adjustment did not change the fact that the Paris Olympics excluded Russia and Belarus. This practice has greatly increased the difficulty of achieving the Olympic Truce: in the international community, the International Olympic Committee has defined Russia and Belarus as countries that "do not comply with the Olympic Charter" in recent years, which further weakened their motivation to participate in the Olympic Truce.
In summary, the Olympic Truce has made the conflict de-escalation mechanism face triple challenges in reality, including complex international conflicts, a divided international community, and sports competitions with a stronger political color. This year's Olympic Games are in full swing, but we have not seen the hostile people temporarily stop fighting. Haniyeh's assassination in Iran has added variables to the long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Given the current difficulties faced by the Olympic Truce, it will not become an obstacle for Iran to retaliate against Israel, but perhaps we can expect it to provide a justification for Iran to postpone its actions.
(Kang Jiafeng, Su Ruolin: School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Notes:
[1] Dong Shouyi (1947). International Olympics. Beijing. World Bookstore
[2] Nobel Prize Organization. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2024, from https://www.nobelprize.org/
[3] Minorities at Risk Project, Chronology for Serbs in Bosnia, 2004, Retrieved August 6, 2024, from https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f386dc.html
[4] Burleson, C. (2012). The Ancient Olympic Truce in Modern-Day Peacekeeping: Revisiting Ekecheiria. Sport in Society, 15(6), 798-813. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2012.708282
[5] Ibid.
[6] Lyras, A. (2021). Olympism for Humanity Theory and Praxis: A Call for Peace and Democracy Champions of Change. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 27(4), 658–664. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000498
The Paper special correspondent Kang Jiafeng and Su Ruolin
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