As the hostility between Indonesia and the West intensified from the mid-1950s, Sukarno promoted the idea of 'Revolution,' or the solidarity of the country against 'imperialist' powers. As a way of accomplishing the revolution, sports were manipulated, and education on sports and exercise was intensified, with group sports such as football propagandized as a tool for enhancing 'revolutionary' spirits of fighting together. Sukarno also initiated the birth of the 'Games of the New Emerging Forces' in 1963 as an alternative to the Olympics. By analyzing discourse on policies in sports, this presentation investigates the relationship between sports and politics in Indonesia in the Cold War.

Woonkyung Yeo is an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations at Seoul National University. He has published articles on transnational socioeconomic mobility, the (re)construction of political power, and state-society relations in Indonesia in the context of decolonization.