Prospectus (1)

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Georgia State University *

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3800

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Political Science

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Oct 30, 2023

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Sports, Nationalism, and War 1 Sports and its Relationship with War and Nationalism: Survey Methodology Joey Cook Department of Political Science, Georgia State University POLS 3800 Dr. Daniel Altman April 26, 2023 Introduction Does international sports increase or decrease an individual’s national pride and attitude towards war? Any indication of such a relationship could prove instrumental in analysis of an individual’s motivations to actually fight in war or provide an explanation for why senses of strong national pride and superiority develop in specific people. Sports are extremely important for numerous individual’s early development; young children are exposed to sports frequently, which provides a valuable source of socialization and stimulation. These same young children are soon exposed to the international sports world and quickly begin rooting for their home country. As they grow, many of them become passionate sports fans. Even someone who is only a casual fan or even barely aware of sports might find themselves watching the World Cup or Olympics when they are on. As such, examining large, organized international sports events should be prioritized because of their massive outreach and influence. This prospectus will provide a survey designed in order to determine if there is a relationship between sports and nationalism at all, and if there is a relationship between the two, whether it is positive or negative. The survey outlined in the prospectus will have multiple questions, a measurement system outlined, a control group, repeatability, and also indicate causal inference and potential biases.

Sports, Nationalism, and War 2 Theory It is important to establish first, the variables(and how they are defined), as well as the hypothesis. The independent variable, sports, will be defined as international organized sports fan activity. This specific definition has been chosen because the survey should focus on large scale events like the World Cup which affect millions, in addition to providing a necessary comparative analysis between countries. In order to draw a strong conclusion about sports, a comparative analysis should be used as surveying one country would be too limited or coincidental. Additionally, the goal of the survey is to evaluate how sports affects individuals, so the general prospectus should explore the hearts and minds of fans. Likewise, the dependent variables nationalism and war would be defined as a strong advocacy or pride in what one considers their home country and any type of war support or political aggression. The term home country is used for those who might have immigrated or been displaced from the country they most align with culturally. If someone spent 20 years in China and 1 year in the US, but was surveyed in the US at the time of the study, assuming they are American and fans of the American teams could skew results since they would probably prefer to support China. The hypothesis of this prospectus is that there is a relationship between sports and nationalism and political aggression in individuals. Such a relationship can either be negative or positive, but due to many of the causal mechanisms behind the hypothesis, all the survey is attempting to determine is whether there is a relationship at all. The causal mechanisms behind a positive relationship hypothesis and a negative relationship hypothesis would be drastically different, so it felt more appropriate to first examine whether there was a relationship at all. For the positive relationship hypothesis, sports would be argued to be a psychological whip which increases an individual’s sense of nationalism and pride, as well as train able bodied persons and encourage

Sports, Nationalism, and War 3 wartime attitudes and behavior. Examples of sporting events which contributed to these dependent variables are the Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling fight 1 & 2, the Miracle on Ice, the Football War and the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Louis v. Schmeling and the Berlin Olympics were part of a culmination of international tension before World War 2 and subject to Nazi propaganda, and the Miracle on Ice symbolized a great triumph over the United States’ adversary in the Soviet Union by “beating them at their own game” (although the Soviet Union got their revenge at the 1988 Olympics, winning the gold medal in basketball). These sports rivalries symbolized larger political struggles, but never contributed directly to a war until the Football War or 100 Hour War, a conflict between El Salvador and Honduras. The war buildup was mostly due to immigration and demographics, but the actual conflict kicked off due to violence after a two leg World Cup game. El Salvador cut ties with Honduras, claiming that the Honduran government had done nothing to stop the violence. The war was never truly caused by a sport, but it was the “catalyst to help ignite an already inflammable situation” (Cable, 1969, p 662). Whether strategically utilized by El Salvador in order to provoke a conflict, or weaponized by Honduras in order to expel a minority group, The Football War provides a strong indication of sports’ use as a political weapon by states in order to aggravate their own population in order to make them politically aggressive. On the other hand, one might argue that sports can serve as an outlet for an individual to release political aggression and national pride. The drive discharge model argues that “An inverse synchronic relationship between war and combative sports will be found, with more warlike societies less likely to have such sports and less warlike societies more likely to have them” (Sipes 1973, p 67). However, it should be noted that the psychology behind the drive discharge model as well as the statistics appear to be less than concrete. Like any other cultural activity, an international sporting event can also be used to express pride and love for

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