(Post)Political Power and International Sport: Examining the International Olympic Committee’S Journey to Permanent Observer Status at the United Nations
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(POST)POLITICAL POWER AND INTERNATIONAL SPORT: EXAMINING THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE’S JOURNEY TO PERMANENT OBSERVER STATUS AT THE UNITED NATIONS by NICOLIEN VAN LUIJK BPhEd, The University of Otago, 2007 M.A, The University of British Columbia, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Kinesiology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) NOVEMBER 2015 © Nicolien van Luijk 2015 ABSTRACT The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations (UN) have had an ongoing relationship over the past 80 years that culminated in granting the IOC Permanent Observer status at the UN General Assembly in 2009. This is an honor usually reserved for quasi-states and inter-governmental organizations: very rarely do non-governmental organizations (NGO) obtain this position. This dissertation critically examined the links between the IOC and the UN in a bid to gain an understanding of how and why the IOC obtained this status at the UN. Four research questions guided this study: (i) How, and in what contexts, has the UN engaged with the IOC in the past; (ii) Why/how is the UN currently engaging with the IOC; (iii) How/Why did the IOC obtain Permanent Observer status at the UN General Assembly; and (iv) What are the potential implications of the partnership between the IOC and the UN? In my pursuit of these questions, I drew in particular from the work of Dorothy Smith and Michel Foucault to aid my underlying examination of how forms of knowledge are socially constructed in ways that privilege some groups over others. The work of these theorists supported my attempts to contribute especially to the emerging field of research focused on inequitable power relations within and around the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) ‘movement’. My findings demonstrated that there were various factors at play that have influenced the relationship between these two organizations, including the neoliberalization of development, the global power of sport, and processes of legitimation for both the IOC and the UN. ii PREFACE This dissertation is original, independent work by the author, N. van Luijk. The interviews reported throughout chapters 4 – 8 were covered by UBC ethics certificate number H13- 0088. A version of Chapter 5 has been published online as van Luijk, N. (2013). A Historical Examination of the IOC and UN Partnership: 1952 – 1980. Discussion Paper, IOC Postgraduate Research Grant. Olympic Studies Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland. Retrieved from http://doc.rero.ch/record/209680. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ ii PREFACE .......................................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 Context: UN, Development Goals and the IOC ................................................................................ 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 13 Theoretical Approach .......................................................................................................................... 13 Gramsci, Foucault and Critical Sports Studies ......................................................................................... 18 Sport .......................................................................................................................................................... 22 Critical Sociological Examinations of the IOC .............................................................................. 25 Sport for Development and Peace Literature .............................................................................. 30 Development and Postcolonial Theory ...................................................................................................... 31 Sport in Development and Peace Initiatives ............................................................................................ 36 Organizational Linkages ..................................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 47 Qualitative Methodologies and Institutional Ethnography .................................................... 47 Institutional Ethnography: Background and DeFinition ..................................................................... 48 Critiques of IE ........................................................................................................................................................ 54 Textual Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 55 Interviews ............................................................................................................................................................... 59 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 62 Reflexivity ................................................................................................................................................ 67 CHAPTER 4: HOW DOES AN ORGANIZATION OBTAIN PERMANENT OBSERVER STATUS? .......................................................................................................................................... 69 History of the UN Permanent Observer ......................................................................................... 69 Kofi Annan and Adolf Ogi: A Sporting Friendship ...................................................................... 76 Frattini, Pescante and the Request .................................................................................................. 78 CHAPTER 5: BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS: HISTORY OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE IOC AND THE UN ................................................................................................................. 84 Avery Brundage (IOC President: 1952 – 1972) ........................................................................... 86 UN, Human Rights and Sport: UNESCO’s First Foray into the Sporting Arena ......................... 87 The Olympic Movement vs. ICSPE and UNESCO .................................................................................... 89 The Role oF South AFrican Apartheid in the Olympic Movement .................................................... 93 The Changing Face oF the Olympic Movement: NOCs and ISFs Demanding Power ................ 96 IOC Desperate to Hold on to Power ............................................................................................................. 99 Lord Killanin (IOC President: 1972- 1980) ............................................................................... 103 UNESCO and its Growing Role in International Sport and Physical Education ...................... 103 iv ‘ Sport for All’ and the IOC Backlash .......................................................................................................... 104 From Controversy to Collaboration: IOC and UNESCO ..................................................................... 109 United Nations Declaration Against Apartheid ..................................................................................... 113 Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980 – 2001) and Beyond ............................................................ 117 Theoretical Reflections .................................................................................................................... 122 CHAPTER 6: IOC’S STATUS AS AN ORGANIZATION: TACTICS TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE LEGITIMACY AND AUTHORITY ......................................................................... 126 Organizational Authority ................................................................................................................. 128 Moral Authority .................................................................................................................................. 133 Re-creating History: Apartheid and the IOC .......................................................................................... 137 The Olympic Truce ............................................................................................................................................ 140 Legal Authority .................................................................................................................................... 143 SwitZerland and International Sports Federations