A presentation by Christian Gläßel (Centre for International Security, and a Doctoral Candidate at the Mannheim Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS). This event is part of the Political Economy Lunch Seminar (PELS), co-hosted by the International Security Research Colloquium.
How do international sports events shape repression in authoritarian host countries? International tournaments promise unique gains in political prestige through global media attention. However, autocrats must fear that foreign journalists will unmask their wrongdoings. We argue that autocracies resolve this dilemma by strategically adjusting repression according to the spatial-temporal presence of international media. Using original, highly disaggregated data on the 1978 World Cup, we demonstrate that the Argentine host government largely refrained from repression during the tournament but preemptively cleansed the streets beforehand. These adjustments specifically occurred around hotels reserved for foreign journalists. Additional tests demonstrate that
1) before the tournament, repression turned increasingly covert,
2) during the tournament, targeting patterns mirrored the working shifts of foreign journalists,
3) after the tournament, regime violence again spiked in locations where international media had been present.
Together, the paper highlights the human costs of mega-events, contradicting the common whitewashing rhetoric of functionaries.
To attend the event online, please send an e-mail to kwoyila@hertie-school.org. A Zoom link will be shared before the talk.
