As France prepares for the Olympic Games, it requests more police – from abroad

Jonah Carlson - The Olympic Games are a celebration of internationalism and friendly competition, an opportunity for the best athletes to present themselves on the world stage. Hosting them, however, also presents a slew of geopolitical challenges. John Leicester covers one of the Games’ largest challenges — security — in a recent article with the Associated Press.

This summer, the Olympics will be hosted in Paris, the first time in a century France’s capital city has held them. With the games will come millions of spectators from abroad — up to 15 million, according to estimates restated by Leicester. With this influx of spectators comes the worry of an attack by non-state actors. Non-state actors often use unconventional methods, such as terrorism, to further their political agendas through fear tactics. France’s capital has been frequently targeted by non-state actors, especially Islamic extremist groups, in the last 10 years. For example, the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015 and the coordinated attacks of November 2015 were claimed by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, respectively. Since then, France has been acutely aware of the risk associated with hosting the Games. Leicester notes that awareness may have been accentuated even further by a recent attack at a concert venue in Russia, which resulted in the deaths of over 100 people and was claimed by ISIS-K, an Islamic extremist subgroup closely associated with the wider Islamic State.

As a result, France is looking to boost its material power this coming summer — particularly its manpower. France has requested the contribution of up to 2,000 police officers from 46 countries, according to Leicester, which will be given “very specific tasks” in order to combat terrorist risks. Poland’s officers, for example, will be partially tasked with identifying and countering potential explosive devices with dog teams, according to a comment made by the country’s defense minister. Other country’s teams are likely to be given similar counterterrorism missions. The request for more security is just the most recent example of increased cooperation between states to secure events with international appeal. Leicester notes that during the 2022 World Cup, held in Qatar, France sent 200 of its own soldiers to help improve security. The trend is likely to continue as international events, especially sporting events, become more popular and include more countries.

_{Photo source. Yann Caradec from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.}