Setting a 'Good Example' in Beijing

Posted August 9, 2008

With the possible exception of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly session each September in New York, the Olympics now attract the largest number of world leaders in one location, offering all kinds of opportunities for low-key diplomatic contacts, as well as piques of protocol. More than 80 state leaders and royals attended Friday’s opening ceremony, and many others will be there for the closing ceremony or to watch some of the sporting events. Beijing is hosting leaders from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, France, Russia, Brazil, Thailand and many more. It makes the Group of Eight meeting in Hokkaido earlier this year look like a small cocktail party in comparison.

The 2008 Olympics are a grand banquet of global diplomacy, and even though there are no policies to reconcile or joint statements to negotiate, these leaders can still serve their citizens well by demonstrating a healthy balance of national pride and appreciation of other countries’ athletes and cultures. Nationalism, in particular, is an insidious problem in Northeast Asia, and we can either fan its flames by trumpeting medal counts, obsessing exclusively over our own nation’s athletes, and using the Olympic stage to promote national goals, or we can at least try to embrace some of the fundamental principles of Olympism.

Olympism promotes itself as a “philosophy of life” that is less about competition than it is about the “joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles,” according to the Olympic Movement’s statement of fundamental principles. In fact, the word “competition” does not even appear in the statement. The Olympic Movement, does, however, emphasize that “the practice of sport is a human right,” which might have been more of a problem a few decades ago, but now most nations are pouring millions into sports schools and athlete development programs for the sake of national pride and glory. In certain countries, practicing a sport is an obligation for some gifted athletes and the only way they can provide for their families.

We all know that nationalism is alive and well in East Asia, highlighted most recently by the Korea-Japan flare up over who owns the Dokdo islets in the Sea of Japan (or East Sea, if one is so inclined). I joined an academic workshop in Seoul last week on U.S.-Japan-Korea trilateralism, but in the final panel Korea’s foreign ministry refused to attend if a Japanese diplomat also participated, and so a replacement had to be located quickly. That same week, a major Korean newspaper ran a detailed article sizing up the military balance between Japan and South Korea and assessing how a military conflict might unfold if it came to that between the neighbors, as if it was analyzing lineups in an Olympic soccer match.

Relations between the two Koreas have also chilled significantly in 2008, so their teams did not march together in the opening ceremonies, as they did twice before. Moreover, Chinese President Hu Jintao had arranged for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to sit next to North Korea’s No. 2 at a special luncheon that Mr. Hu is hosting for foreign leaders, but the North reportedly asked for a new seating arrangement. These are all opportunities missed.

I know that the Olympics are not above politics (rather, they tend to attract political controversy like a magnet), and some have eloquently argued that they are more of a business than they are an amateur event or, for goodness sake, a “Movement.” They probably live up to their principles less often than they fail to, but that’s exactly why this confluence of sport, culture, and political leadership is so important. It is just about the only opportunity we have to transcend these baser nationalistic tendencies, in a multilateral environment that celebrates individuals rather than nations…and where the stakes are actually quite low. After all, we are not talking about territory, water rights, trade barriers, or greenhouse gases (unless we bring these disputes with us into this forum).

The “educational value of good example” should begin first and foremost with our nations’ leaders, who will have a unique opportunity to interact with one another over the next two weeks. National pride is of course an admirable quality (in measured doses) and politically necessary for every leader to demonstrate, but we are also citizens of the same planet sharing a dwindling stock of natural resources. There will be plenty of time to argue and posture at the next policy conference or regional forum. I don’t want to belittle these important debates, but instead, for now, why not sit next to each other at lunch, build some personal relationships that might help solve problems later, and watch the competition (sorry, “sports festival”) together.

Mr.  Schoff is associate director of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Cambridge, MA, and he is co-author of “Nuclear Matters in North Korea: Building a Multilateral Response for Future Stability in Northeast Asia” (Potomac Books, 2008).