Since the end of the Cold War, Olympic Games have entered a new era in which governments see the games as a form of “public diplomacy” and non-governmental organizations target the games in publicity campaigns. The Chinese leadership intended the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to serve the pursuit of “soft power.” In the leadup to the Beijing 2022 Olympics, what has changed and what has stayed the same since 2008, and what are the lessons going forward for China and other nations strategizing to increase their “soft power” through hosting sport mega-events? And how should the members of the media see their role in this process?
About our speaker: Susan Brownell is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri – St. Louis and a former nationally-ranked track and field athlete in the U.S. She has been researching sports and Olympic Games in China since she won a gold medal in the 1986 Chinese College Games while representing Peking University. In 2007-08, she joined Chinese colleagues collaborating with BOCOG and the municipal government, and she also had rare access to internal decision-making at the International Olympic Committee.