IJHS Volume 33, 2016 – Issue 12: Olympics in Conflict

IJHS 2016 Special Issue: Olympics in Conflict – From the Games of the New Emerging Forces to the Rio Olympics

 

Introduction
Lu Zhouxiang & Fan Hong

In the second half of the twentieth century the Olympics has played an important role in the politics of the Cold War and was part of the conflicts between the Capitalist Block, the Socialist Block and Third World countries. The Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) is one of the best examples of the politicization of sport and the Olympics in the Cold War era. From the 1980s onward, the Olympics has facilitated communication and cooperation between nations in the post-Cold War era and contributed to the formation of a new world order. In August 2016, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad were held in Rio de Janeiro, making Brazil the first South American country to host the Summer Olympics. This was widely regarded as a new landmark event in the history of the modern Olympic movement. From the GANEFO to Rio, the Olympic Games have witnessed the shifting balance in international politics and world economy.
This special issue aims at understanding the transformation of the Olympics over the past decades and tries to explain how the Olympic movement played its part in world politics, the world economy and international relations against the background of the rise of Third World countries. The collection is based on an international conference which took place at Maynooth University, Ireland between 20 and 21 May 2016. The theme of the conference was ‘Olympics in Conflict: From GANEFO to the Rio Olympics’. It was a result of close collaboration between The International Journal of the History of Sport and Maynooth University. We wish to acknowledge the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures of Maynooth University for its organizational and financial support.

Independent Olympic Athletes and the Legitimacy of the International Olympic Committee in Resolving International Conflicts
Tiago Del Tedesco Guioti, Mauro Cardoso Simões & Eliana de Toledo

The Legacy of the Games of the New Emerging Forces and Indonesia’s Relationship with the International Olympic Committee
Friederike Trotier

‘The Sole Anti-Democratic Federation in the Entire Olympic Movement’: Early International Association of Athletics Federations Development Initiatives Between Commercialization and Democratization, 1974–1987
Jörg Krieger

Sport in Singapore (1945–1948): From Rehabilitation to Olympic Status
Nick Aplin

Olympics, Media and Politics: The First Olympic Ideas in Brazilian Society During the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Fabio de Faria Peres, Victor Andrade de Melo & Jorge Knijnik

The Development of Social Media and its Impact on the Intercultural Exchange of the Olympic Movement, 2004–2012
Yinya Liu

A Game for the Global North: The 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and South Korean Cultural Politics
Jung Woo Lee

The Development of the Olympic Narrative in Chinese Elite Sport Discourse from Its First Successful Olympic Bid to the Post-Beijing Games Era
Richard Xiaoqian Hu & Ian Henry

Xi Jin-Ping’s World Cup Dreams: From a Major Sports Country to a World Sports Power
Tien-Chin Tan, Hsien-Che Huang, Alan Bairner & Yu-Wen Chen