This week I watched the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in South Korea. Perhaps the biggest event of the night was the parade of nations, with a united Korean team composed of both South and North athletes drawing the most attention. It is difficult to determine if the show of friendship and camaraderie is meaningful, or just a ploy by the North to reduce the sanctions which have been leveled against them. A cynic would say that the latter is the reality, and I tend to agree with that sentiment. However, regardless of the true intentions of the North Korean delegation it is a definite step in the right direction. I was unaware of this, but during the Cold War East and West Germany would occasionally send unified teams to the Olympics. And it was through American and Western athletes interacting with the people of the Soviet Union which arguably initiated the end of Cold War tensions. The North Koreans have been dedicated to building nuclear weapons so that they will be “safe” from outside aggression, and similarly this fear of invasion is what fueled the arms race between the USSR and US. What is key to remember is that the Cold War ended only when the people of the USSR learned about America, and decided for themselves that the outside world wasn’t as bad as what propaganda had portrayed. It is difficult to win a war with force, but Coca Cola has never lost. The unified Korean team is probably just a PR stunt put on by the North Korean government. But it may inadvertently lead to real change.