Johanna Francis
PWR 1: The Rhetoric of Containment
Shannon Hervey
November 1, 2017
Blog Post #4
My research topic is the effect which sports have had on Communist nations, specifically China and North Korea, and the role that they have played in these countries’ international relations. This topic is relevant because for these two countries historically, sports have played an incredibly important role in both developing a sense of national identity and allowing for interactions with other, non-Communist, nations.
The so-called “Ping Pong Diplomacy” which occurred between the United States and China in the 1970s is perhaps the most obvious example of the power that sports can have in international relations. In his 2014 book, Ping Pong Diplomacy: Ivor Montagu and the Astonishing Story behind the Game That Changed the World, Nicholas Griffin discusses the surprising history of ping pong, and then moves to discuss the massive impact that the game ended up having over the relationship between the United States and China in the 1970s. In North Korea, sports have played a fundamental role in developing a sense of national identity and are highly encouraged by the government. In The Two Koreas and the Politics of Global Sport, Brian Bridges examines the ways in which sports have contributed to the development of a uniquely North Korean culture. He also explains how sports have played a very unique role in exchanges between North and South Korea since the separation of the two countries following World War II. In many ways, sports have exacerbated the rivalry between the two, but at times, the possibility of combining sports teams has led the two countries to consider uniting, a concept that would be unheard of in almost any other context.
The Rhetoric of Containment 