United States’ Baseball Diplomacy in Cuba: how the national pastime functions as a diplomatic tool and can contribute to a collective homerun
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2021-07-21
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en
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Baseball is the national pastime of both the United States and Cuba, and is therefore of incredible value to both its citizens as the sport continues to warm the hearts of millions of baseball fans. The sport is also used as a diplomatic tool, mainly by the US government to enhance positive relations with Cuba. This can be categorized under public diplomacy as it is part of their foreign policy, while at the same time not being limited to government action only, as private businesses are also involved in these baseball interactions . Recently, the academic field has seen a shift to sport diplomacy as an academic field in and of itself as a specialization of public diplomacy. This thesis attempts to fill a gap, as few research has been conducted on sport diplomacy regarding US-Cuban relations through the lens of baseball, by answering the question whether or not baseball has helped to improve US-Cuban relations, and whether or not it can continue to be an important factor in drawing the two countries closer together. First, the history of US-Cuban relations through the lens of baseball will be analyzed with the symbolic circularity of a baseball field in mind, as the history of US-Cuban relations shows clear signs of circularity and inevitability. Subsequently, this thesis will specifically focus on the period after 2015, given that this was the year that the American and Cuban embassies reopened, and thus diplomatic relations restarted, in order to successfully answer the aforementioned research question.
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