By Pooja Mohanty
In November 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution for the Olympic truce to be observed for the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure the safe transit of athletes, office-bearers and authorised people- a tradition revived in the 1990s but dating back to the origin of Olympics in ancient Greece. The International Olympic Committee(IOC) President Thomas Bach speaking at the 78th UNGA session declared its title "Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal". He pleaded for giving "Peace a Chance!" by embracing the Olympic spirit of non-discrimination, honest sportspersonship and peaceful coexistence with fair competition.
The resolution was tabled on behalf of the French government while its Capital hurried to glam up to host the 2024 Summer Games. As French foreign policy under the Macron Presidency shifts gear to 'strategic autonomy', 'European sovereignty' and accelerates its bid to reinvigorate the French leadership of European Union; the 2024 Olympic Games are set to become a symbol of French resilience amidst an era of domestic crisis and global wars.
The Paris Olympics Organizing Committee aims to bring the Games out of the conventional stadiums and into the cities. The digital renderings of event venues at iconic sites across Paris are breathtaking. The debutant sport 'Breaking' is scheduled to be held at a major public square Place de la Concorde and 'Beach volleyball' in front of the Eiffel Tower. But both locations have hosted multiple protests against retirement age reforms, pension bills, a rise in attempted femicide and femicide (over 120 cases were recorded in 2023), the new immigration laws and social division and economic decline in general throughout 2023 and into 2024, that led to multiple shutdowns and restrictions of these sites. Paris suburbs tell similar tales of riots. In 2023, the Nanterre police firing killed a teenager. While Macron rushed to condemn the incident, the dominoes of foreign policy and diplomatic repercussions had already tumbled. The USA, UK and China issued urgent warnings for travellers as violence ensued despite heightened police deployment. In the aftermath of the police killing, Macron had to postpone his state visit to Germany and skipped the press conference following the European Council meeting to rush home. Its anxieties remain embedded even today. Thereby, the 2024 Olympics is critical for the French endeavour to rebuild its fracturing image and boost 'Olympic fever' tourism.
Sports remain a major instrument of soft power and foreign policy, with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar being the latest case. When it comes to the Olympics, the entire diplomatic and consular machinery is geared to tend to visa services and host dignitaries including Heads of States and Governments. The French Olympics is estimated to host 15,000 athletes, 9,000 journalists, 1.5 million spectators at venues and 4 billion audiences through media (statistics exclude contingent officials and delegations). France has established a special 'Olympic Consulate' for handling visa processes for the Games. The entire procedure will be online. This is the first time in the European Union's(EU) history that visas have gone digital, and integrated into individual Olympic accreditation cards. This is EU's litmus test before Schengen visas across the EU go digital as agreed upon by EU Foreign Ministers on 13 November 2023.
The herculean challenge is to prevent spillover of the war at EU's border into the Olympic Park. The "invader" Russia, for France and the international community, has been pointed as the only violator of Olympic truces, despite other crises continuing across the world. The 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea coincided with the Olympic truce for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics hosted by the Russian city of Sochi. In 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out right before the Beijing Winter Paralympics opened despite the Russian sponsorship of the 2022 Olympic truce. While the Olympic truce is non-binding, diplomatic boycotts and bans have been achieved. Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from 2022 Winter Paralympics by the International Paralympics Committee. This move that marked a departure from the Olympic values of political neutrality and universality. These sports 'sanctions' (including those for doping scandals) continued and Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to participate in the 2024 Summer Games as 'individual neutral athletes' only. Russia's response is reinstating the Soviet era 'World Friendship Games' in 2024. The International Olympic Committee has opposed the 'Friendship Games' for going "against the Olympic Movement's collective aim of maintaining the independence and autonomy of sport". There is no denial of the Games becoming a turf for political contestations, far from the 'autonomous' promise of the Olympic Charter.
With memories of 2015 Paris bombings still afresh, non-conventional security is another critical area. 'Paris 2024' decided to move ahead with a new aluminium judging tower construction (with piecemeal design alterations) in Tahiti, French Polynesia where 'Surfing' events will be held despite vehement local opposition. The International Surfing Association has joined the opposition parade by highlighting the environmental menaces of the project and even providing alternatives. At the same time issues of labour exploitation during construction of mega-projects of urban development, Olympic and media villages led to the endangered, unsecured, underpaid and overworked workers (mostly undocumented ethnic minority immigrants such as Turks, Portuguese or Arabs) protesting and striking at event venues. At Porte de La Chapelle, all undocumented migrants were regularised following strikes. However, this is a rare case. The ground reality is at odds with Paris 2024's 'commitments' of economic opportunities, social inclusion, carbon neutrality and 'Legacy and Sustainability'.
The UNGA truce resolution urges cooperation among member-states and national Olympic committees to "use sport as a tool to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict". The ideals of Olympism can serve as a model of conflict resolution and community building- reaching the negotiation tables 'faster', rising 'higher' than divisive forces and fostering 'stronger' bonds of humanity. But its practice stipulates commitment and trust of all, which is the Achilles heel of global relations.
This Article is an Original Contribution to the SIS Blog.
Pooja Mohanty is a Post Graduate student of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests include energy security, energy geopolitics and contemporary developments in Europe.