Studium Generale “Sport and Diplomacy”, 6th December 2018

Stuidum Generale “Sport and Diplomacy”

It is inevitable to separate politics from social, cultural, and even economical aspects of our modern life. In line, sports have taken a significant part in these cross-cultural phenomenon being one of the highest human participated events in the world. Thus, diplomatic relations through the canals of political affairs between states are instruments of development for sports. The Faculty of Law Universitas Islam Indonesia (FH UII) and the Institut Francais Indonesia (IFI Yogyakarta) collaborated in conducting a Stadium Generale titling “Sports and Diplomacy” inviting Mr. Cyrille Bret, an analyst of the geopolitical functions of sport, and Mr. Barthelemy Courmont, an expert on political and security issues in Asia.

The event began with an opening speech from, the director of IFI, Ms. Sarah Camara who showed her gratitude towards the speakers, moderators, and partners who have cooperated in making the event come to life, followed by a formal opening of the event by Mr. Munthoha. Mr. Ginanjar then started moderating the Stadium Generale with a warm ‘Bonjour” as a gift for the audience.

Monsieur Bret stated that major sport event is broadly known such as FIFA, along with the winter games in Korea. Sports has the aims in creating; Prosperity, Peace, Power and Influence (3Ps), for the nation or population who supports the event. Prosperity is supposed to flourish the country’s development through channels of social, economic, health, infrastructure, and tourism by hosting such sporting events. Sports are expected to bring visibility and influence of a country.

Monsieur Courmont argues on the concern inmaking the feasibility of those 3Ps. In terms of prosperity, Athens have been abandoned after the Olympic games. Such conclusion depends on the management and the abilities of the authorities to organize some sort of sustainability in the investment involving such process. There should be some sort of social contract between the government and the community.

For Peace, as an example, good cooperation between countries can be established such as the United States and North Korea with the virtue of sport. An objection to this would be the maintenance of cooperation to achieve peace between countries.

Are the 3Ps a cause or a consequence? In most cases, it is not the issue of money or wealth, but rather the recognition of power, and prestigiousness. This has been the case for all major events (World Cup and Olympics). However, political friction could become a cause of hindrance for the actualization of sporting events (in the case of south Korea). “The future of sport developments is in the hands of young generations” stated Monsieur Bret.

Mr. Dodik Setiawan then defined diplomacy as “a part of interconnected and complex international activities, involving governments and international organizations to achieve certain goals” borrowing from Suryokusumo (1998), with the garnish of “diplomacy as an engine of affairs of State”. Ha added, sport may become a political tool to gather masses and communities. On the other hand, sporting event may become a leverage of incidents and terrorist attacks, reflecting from the 1972 Munich Games and 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

Notwithstanding the seldom dark side of those events, Sport can also become a tool of communication, and an effective diplomatic channel. Proven by an example of the first ever Palestine involvement in the ASIAN Games. Furthermore, it is a chance to cool the tensions diplomatic relations. Last but not least, Sports will give rise to adopting universal standard of law and ethics internationally.

The event was then closed with fruitful question and answer session, both French speakers along with Mr. Dodik gave four substantial insights. First, that it is a collective effort and also a sacrifice to bring about the maintenance of investment for countries. In order to do this, elements of public awareness, and re-usable infrastructures must be fulfilled. Second, Major sporting event becomes a target for extremist and criminal groups, but it does not mean that organizing such events should be prohibited. There is always a risk in hosting sporting events. But the success in hosting such event really relies on the. Third, E-sport is not a fully played sport. Yes, E-sport has the potential to bring about prosperity (brings financial support), peace (meetings in grouping people together) and power (advantage when mastering such E-Sport skills). Lastly, countries’ involvement for the tendencies to join UN rather the FIFA is because of the nature of those organizations, being very political, respectively.

At the end of the session, a quiz was also held for the participants, with questions coming from the moderator surrounding the topics on France. The Students were eager to answer and were rewarded a tote-bag souvenir with a signature of the France Institut.