THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE AND THE GERMAN QUESTION A Case Study of the Role of Transnational Organizations In the International System Stanford Uni versity Honors Thesis in International Relations Kenneth Garrett June 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Why Study TransnationalOrganizations? 1 Why StudySport? 2 WhyStudy the International Olympic Committee(IOC)? 5 Why Studythe "GermanQuestion" in the IOC? 8 Objectives 9 CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 11 The OlympicMovement: A Brief History from 776BC to 1950AD 11 The Structure of the IOCafter World War II 12 Germanyand the IOC 13 The Beginnings ofthe Cold War in Germany 16 What Each Part of GermanyWanted from the Other 20 WhatEach Part of GermanyWanted from the IOC after World War II 22 The "One Team" Solution 25 CHAPTER 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE "ONE TEAM" SOLUTION 28 Understanding the IOC's Motivations 28 I. Avery Brundage: Ideological Emperor of the IOC 28 II. The Pro-Western Tendenciesof the IOC 32 III. The Slow Paceof IOC DecisionMaking, both Inherent and Strategic 34 IV. Making Big Decisionsin the Name of Little Ones 36 V. IOC Anger at GDR Actions 40 VI. The GDR Broke IOC Rules 42 VII. The United Team is Better for the German People 43 How the IOC was able to Implement its Policy 44 I. The IOC Capitalized on a Rare Policy Climate in Germany 44 II. The IOC Capitalized on the Rare Policy Climate of the Early Cold War 49 CHAPTER 3: THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNITED TEAM 51 Understanding the IDC's Internal Motivations 51 I. The GDR Refusedto Cooperate 52 II. Legal Arguments 53 III. The GDR had Fulfilled its Obligations to the IOC 54 IV. The International Sports Federations Threatened the Supremacyof the IOC 55 V. Continued Playing Down of the Significanceof IOC Decisions 56 External Forces Influencing the IDC's Decision to Abandon the United Team 57 I. Deterioration of the IOC's Bargaining Position vis-a.-visthe GDR 58 II. A Dangerous Political Game 61 III. Ostpolitik: Political Detente 61 IV. Ostpolitik: SocialDetente 64 V. Death of the Ideal 66 CONCLUSION 68 The "Success" ofthe United Team Policy 70 The Role of Transnational Organizationsin the International System 72 TheoreticalSupport 75 Areasfor Further Study 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY 81 INTRODUCTION Why Study Transnational Organizations? When one thinks of the Olympics, the first images that come to mind are athletic prowess,national pride and internationalgoodwill. Evenamong political scientists steepedin theory,thoughts concerning the Olympics rarely extendto an analysisof the political powerof the organizationbehind the Olympic Games,the InternationalOlympic Committee. This is not an unusualomission; the influenceof transnationalorganizations has only recentlybecome the subjectof scholarship,signaling a long overduerecognition of this importantcomponent of the internationalsystem. The usual explanationfor this failure to considerthe role of transnational organizations is that statesoperate on the level of "high politics," specifically in the military/securitydilemma, whereas most non-state actors do not. The fact that securityis principally the domainof statesleads to a state-centeredview of internationalrelations at the expenseof considerationof other importantactors. For theoristsof the dominant "realist" schoolof thought,economic, social and cultural interactionsare lessrelevant. Therefore,the organizationsthat specializein thesedomains of intemationallife are also deemedto be relatively insignificant. Such a narrow view of the international systemprecludes acknowledgement of the essentialrole playedby non-stateactors. Insteadof using somevague definition of "power" or a baselesshierarchy of issue areasto deem states "more important" than non- state actors, as do realists, scholars should recognize that states and non-state actors are similar in their efforts to implementpolicies using all the resourcesand bargaining 2 positionsavailable to them. Simplybeing a statedoes not give one actora better bargainingposition in everyconflict than any givennon-state actor. "Some NGOs rnon- governmentalorganizations] probably have more powerand influence in their respective fields than some of the smaller nation-states." 1 Assuminga basic level of peaceand security,the economic,cultural and socialactivities in which transnationalorganizations specialize are extremely important to the average person and are worthy of study. It is within the interactions among all actors in the international system, not just one "important" subset, where scholars will find some of the most interesting questions facing the internationalsystem today. To completelyunderstand the nuancesof internationalrelations, therefore, one mustacknowledge and analyzethe role playedby transnationalorganizations. 2 WhyStudy Sport? Having demonstrated that transnational organizations are important actors in the international system and therefore worthy of study, it would be instructive to select a type of transnational organization that to the greatestdegree possible ignores race, class, nationality,religion, and gender. To do otherwisewould renderany conclusions applicable only to limited segmentsof the international system. 1 Kjell Skjelsbaek,"The Growthof IntemationalNongovernmental Organization in the Twentieth Century,"International Organization25, no. 3 (1971): 435. 2I borrow from SamuelP. Huntington's definition of a "transnationalorganization." In this paper,a transnationalorganization is a private organizationthat is not necessarilytied to anysingle nation,which attemptsto performits operationswith the greatestdisregard possible for nationalborders. It is important for the readerto juxtaposea transnationalorganization with an "internationalorganization, " which is in this paperan organizationmade up of representativesof nationalgovernments, and relies on thosegovernments for all of its power. SamuelP. Huntington,"Transnational Organizations in World Politics," WorldPolitics 25, no. 3 (1973). 3 "No other institution, except perhaps religion, commands the mystique, the nostalgia,the romanticideational cultural fixation that sportdoes.,,3 Almost everyone, The thrill of victory, the agonyof defeat,and the senseof accomplishmentfrom having completeda goal areuniversal and are readilyfound in almostevery athletic contest. Sportis truly a commonglobal language. In addition to the fact that many people throughout the world care about sport, it is also ideal for a studyof transnationalrelations because sport is, by its very nature, political. Thereare unambiguous winners and losers. In internationalcompetition, whereathletes represent a particularnation, a fan cannothelp but feel that ifhis nation's teamdefeats another nation's team,at leastin one small way his nation is betterthan the other. Any person interested in international sport between 1960 and 1990 will probably rememberthe dominanceof EastGerman athletes. Their athleticprowess provided a strongsense of national superiorityof which their nation's propagandaorgans made great capital. A 1958 edition of the Sovietnewspaper Pravda explicitly acknowledgesthe propaganda value of sport: "An important factor in our foreign policy is the international relationsof our sportsmen.A successfultrip by the sportsmenof the USSR or the people'sdemocratic countries is an excellentvehicle of propagandain capitalist countries. The successof our sportsmenabroad helps in the work of our foreign diplomatic missionsand of our tradedelegations.',4 3James H. Frey and D. StanleyEitzen, "Sportand Society,"Annual Review of Sociology 17(1991): 504. 4Richard Espy, ThePolitics of the Olympic Games(Berkeley: University of California Press,1979), 4, and Henry Ashby Turner, Germanyfrom Partition to Reunification(New Haven:Yale University Press,1992), 218. 4 Sportis also a safeplace to engagein a "metaphoricwar betweennation-states."s In sociological terms, sport is an arena of " ...structured conflict and competitiveness in controlled settings rarely found in other aspectsof social life." 6 International sport competitionsare basicallycultural exchanges,and the competitionsthemselves are ideally politically neutral. But it is commonly believed that "better" states field more successfulathletes. Athletic competitiontherefore parallels-or at leastdramatizes- political competition, but does not necessarily carry the same potentially destructive consequences.While thereis nothing ambiguousabout a military victory, sportis a malleableforeign policy tool becauseleaders can shadethe significanceof a competition dependingon political intent.7 Leadersfield athletesto demonstratethe superiorityof the nation that sponsoredthem. "The glamour and attractivenessof the Olympic Games and the fact peoplecare give Olympic performancesgreat political significanceand weight.,,8 Due to the near-universal love of sport and the fact that feelings of national pride enterthe mix, the field of internationalsport is boundto be one in which international interactionsbecome heated. Internationalconflicts within the sportingworld offer a microcosmof the political world; becausesport is universal,what happensin sportis applicableto the largerworld. It is thereforeenlightening to studytransnational organizationsthat speakthis universallanguage. 5Alfred Erich Senn, Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games(Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1999), xii 6 Frey and Eitzen, "Sport and Society," 504. 7 Espy, The Politics of the Olympic Games,4. 8 Senn, Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games,x. 5 Why Study the International Olympic Committee (IOC)? The InternationalOlympic Committeeis