Ping–Pong Diplomacy and its Legacy in the American Foreign Policy

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of the paper is to investigate ping-pong diplomacy between the Unites States and China, which was used by both countries as a diplomatic tool, aimed at achieving political rapprochement despite ideological dissonance and conflict over Taiwan. Both governments were seeking a way to establish closer relations but the circumstances prevented them from traditional diplomatic contacts. Sports exchange proved to be a convenient solution. In the paper the Author attempts to verify a hypothesis on a subsequent legacy of the ping-pong diplomacy in American foreign policy. The study allowed to determine reasons for the need to employ sport in order to establish closer relations between two hostile actors of international relations. It is an attempt to answer a question concerning the intentional or coincidental character of the analysed sports exchange. The paper is an empirical case study on one of the prime examples of positive sports diplomacy and was conducted with the use of decision-making.

Pakistan's International Image and Need for Public Diplomacy

“…Time Magazine described it as "the ping heard round the world". Nine American players, four officials, and two spouses crossed a bridge from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland on 10th April 1971, hence marking the beginning of the "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" era ( Kobierecki 2016).…”

Evolving Strategies at Reconciliation: Inter-Korean Sports and Music Diplomacy in Historical Perspective (1985-2017)

“…Much of the literature begins with a look at the Ping-Pong diplomacy between China and the United States. Kobierecki (2016), who considers sports contact as a way to achieve diplomatic breakthrough when other channels of communication are limited or nonexistent, has highlighted the motivations for each respective side during the Ping-Pong diplomacy initiative, namely that the Chinese side wanted to join the UN and deter the Soviet Union while the US side wanted to strengthen its position in the Cold War and thought that it could not afford to have the people of the most populous country in the world "live in angry isolation." Believing that this Ping-Pong diplomacy succeeded in paving the way towards normalization between the two countries, Kobierecki further outlines out how it "sparked imaginations" for how sports could be used for diplomacy for both the United States and China.…”

Strategies for the development of international sport diplomacy in the volleyball federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran

“…A review of the political events that have taken place in the last 100 years in sporting competitions around the world also illustrates the prevalence of the former, namely the use of sport as a diplomatic tool, which has been of interest to researchers in various studies. Ping Pong Diplomacy between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the Early 1970s (Eckstein, 1993;Hong & Sun, 2000;Kobierecki, 2016); Sport Diplomacy in Football and Wrestling between the United States and Iran (Chehabi, 2001); Cricket Diplomacy between India and Pakistan (Naess-Holm, 2007; Shahid, 2015); Sport diplomacy over the years between the countries of South Korea and North Korea (Merkel, 2008) are examples of this state, which have not ended up to the same results in all cases. Murray (2012) cites seven different reasons for governments' increasing use of international sport as a diplomatic tool: 1.The post-Cold War diplomatic environment has transformed governments into modification, alteration, and experimentation of new methods and sport diplomacy is an active, innovative and groundbreaking contribution.…”

“…Simply put, this qualitative research seeks to answer the question of how and through what methods and strategies and in what areas, the Iranian volleyball federation, as the main governing body of this discipline, can develop international sport diplomacy? Ping pong diplomacy between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s (Eckstein, 1993;Hong & Sun, 2000;Kobierecki, 2016); Sport diplomacy in football and wrestling between the United States and Iran (Chehabi, 2001); Cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan (Naess-Holm, 2007; Shahid, 2015); Sport diplomacy over the years between South Korea and North Korea (Merkel, 2008) are all examples of this, but the results were not the same in all cases.…”

“…taken place in the cases of Ping Pong Diplomacy between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the Early 1970s(Eckstein, 1993;Hong & Sun, 2000;Kobierecki, 2016); Sport Diplomacy in Football and Wrestling Between the United States and Iran(Chehabi, 2001); cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan (Naess-Holm, 2007;Shahid, 2015) and sport diplomacy between South and North Korea(Merkel, 2008) have definitely been different from each other because the context of the event and many of its causes were different.…”