The 2018 Winter Olympics, scheduled to begin on February 9^th in the mountainous region of Pyeongchang County, South Korea, will feature an unprecedented use of the military for security purposes, according to reports that have surfaced in the past weeks. The New York Times said the force of 60,000 security personnel planned by South Korean officials “may be the most militarized security force in Olympic history.”

As a part of this build-up, 50,000 soldiers will be deployed for the better part of February, armed with technology giving them far-reaching surveillance powers. This force is more than double the amount of military personnel used during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Pyeongchang Olympics anti-terrorism and safety team plans to utilize planes equipped with facial recognition software and drones that target other unauthorized drones. In addition, motion-tracking CCTV cameras have been installed at Olympic venues. Last month, Reuters reported that South Korean troops were conducting anti-terrorism training operations, including practicing shooting down drones with specialized shotguns. A press photo released by the South Korean Counter Terrorism Centre shows a masked soldier aiming one of these guns at the sky as part of a training exercise.

Officials have stated concerns over possible anti-North Korean extremists in the South as well as North Korea’s history of inciting violence around international sporting events as a justification for the build-up. However, the mobilization also comes after a January diplomatic deal between North and South Korea, securing the North’s participation in the Games. Athletes from each nation are set to march under a common flag, and a unified women’s hockey team has been heralded as an opportunity to promote cooperation.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee said of the joint participation, “I’m sure it will be a very emotional moment, not just for all Koreans, but also for the entire world.” He framed the agreement as being in the “true Olympic spirit of respect and friendship.”

South Korean presidential spokesman Park Soo-Hyun echoed these sentiments in a news conference, stating “We’re confident that the Olympics will be a stepping stone to bring peace to the Korean peninsula, to Northeast Asia and the world.”

Nevertheless, the Olympic security forces seem to suggest that the South Koreans believe peace comes at a cost. Stepping back from the Korean context, the military build-up fits into an Olympic history of legitimizing mass militarization, with effects for host countries that last even after the Games have ended.

Critics say Olympic preparations create a ‘state of exception’ in cities, whereby civil rights are suspended and marginalized communities can be violently purged in preparation for international visitors. The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio were called the “eviction games” by activists who observed officials forcibly displaced thousands of residents to pave way for Olympic projects. Urbanists have also noted that the use of military personnel to address Rio’s security concerns in 2016 has led to the city’s continued reliance on their presence to fill policing roles. In 2017, federal troops remained on Rio’s streets as part of “Operation Rio Wants Security and Peace.” In September, the state of Rio de Janeiro’s governor asked for military support in carrying out a week-long occupation of the community of Rocinha, home to 100,000 people. Activists in Rocinha have criticized the rhetoric of ‘war’ mobilized by the city government in its efforts to end drug trafficking as well as the disruptive effects of military occupation, which shutters schools and threatens civilians caught in firefights.

Similar dynamics have accompanied other Olympic Games. In 1984, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates oversaw the incarceration of thousands of African American men suspected of being in gangs in the ‘Olympic Gang Sweeps,’ often denying them due process. The 84′ Olympics fuelled the militarization of the Los Angeles Police Department, resulting in a 33 percent spike in citizen complaints against police brutality in the five years following the Games.

Mega-events like the Olympics have a well-documented history of involving militarization and the overreach of state power. The Olympics provide a convenient justification for these abuses, as well as the violations of citizens’ civil rights. The security build-up in South Korea, although justified in terms of apparent security threats and an already militarized relationship with North Korea, has a similar potential.