Dennis Rodman’s trip to North Korea
In the end of February 2013 the basketball player Dennis Rodman went to North Korea, this incident is sometime called “basketball diplomacy”. He became the first American celebrity to meet the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un He watched basketball game between the Harlem Globetrotters and the North Korea’s basketball “dream team” in the capital city of Pyongyang. When the basketball games were finished he and the North Korean leader entertained themselves at parties.[1] The basketball player Dennis Rodman himself saw that this was one action of his peace-making goal around the world. It is said that Dennis Rodman see the North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un as a great leader, good guy and a friend for life.[2]
These conducts by Dennis Rodman was not much appreciated by the diplomats in Washington, it is said that this was not an official act of the United States diplomacy.
Accordingly to Dennis Rodman the situation between United States and North Korea is caused by a misunderstanding and believes that Kim Jong-un does not want to start a war but would like to have a call from the United States President Barack Obama in order to talk through things. Dennis Rodman says he does not condone for the things the North Korean leader do, but he considers him as a friend.[3]
So by this occasion we can see that even celebrities sometimes have the ability to promote public diplomacy for a good cause, in this situation Dennis Rodman wanted to reestablish a good relationship between United States and North Korea but the United States diplomacy council did not want to recognize the action by Dennis Rodman as a part of their diplomacy agenda so therefore they dismissed the whole incident and ridiculed it.
It is said that Dennis Rodman was only able to do this because he is a famous character, the amount of reaction that he has caused he seems to have taken it lightly. It is said that he even plans a return visit back to North Korea in august this year, for the purpose of reestablish the relationship between United States and North Korea we do not know yet.[4]
But we can see that celebrities plays an essential role when it comes to public diplomacy because the actions that their conducts would either be with the accordance with the states action or it would be against it, by the reaction of United States diplomacy council we see that they were not pleased with actions of Dennis Rodman.
What we can learn from this case is that the relationships between states should be respected and not put in to jeopardy by certain conducts by individuals.
We can also see that states are very concerned of how they are being portrayed towards other states, and in order to do it is important that they exerciser certain power of the conducts by their citizens within their own state, in this case we saw that the United States diplomacy did not even gave recognition to the conducts by Dennis Rodman.
[1] George Stephanopoulis Interviews Dennis Rodman After Return From North Korea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuFAqcpxZ4I [acessed:04-03-2013]
[2] http://www.cnbc.com/id/100550857 [acessed:13-03-2013]
Public Diplomacy and Global Communication C 