Public Diplomacy Blunder: South Africa Rejects Dalai Lama

In what can only be described as a public diplomacy blunder, South Africa has denied the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference, the BBC reports. The conference, which was also set to include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and F.W. de Klerk was part of a set of events linked to the 2010 Soccer World Cup which will take place in the African country. 

The visa denial has caused De Klerk and Archbishop Tutu to back out of the conference --where they would discuss the role of soccer in helping to fight racism and xenophobia-- and to release strong statements of disapproval towards the actions of the South African government. 

In turn, Thabo Masebe, the spokesman for South African president Kgalema Motlanthe has responded by saying that a visit by the Dalai Lama "would not be in the interests of South Africa" and it would shift the attention from South Africa to issues related to China and Tibet. 

Well, the attention has shifted. 

Unfortunately for the South African government, by denying the Dalai Lama entry to their country, they have attracted substantial negative coverage, and they have strained their relationship with the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the important international public figures that compose it. 

With a major international sporting event in the horizon, it is quite unfortunate that South Africa has failed to capitalize on the remarkable public diplomacy opportunity that this conference offered, and instead, has allowed this incident to taint the public perception about its ability to host events of this stature. More so, all the press coverage about this incident suggests that South Africa's reason to deny entry to the Dalai Lama is its close economic ties with China, giving the impression that South Africa has compromised its sovereignty when conducting international relations. 

So let's recap:

Publicly rejecting Nobel Laureate / Spiritual leader: CHECK!

Pissing off international public opinion leaders: CHECK!

Not apologizing for it: CHECK!

Appearing incapable of hosting an international sporting event: CHECK!

Giving the impression of compromised sovereignty: CHECK!

Not knowing how to handle public diplomacy: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK!