The sight of Dennis Rodman, the eccentric basketball player, going to North Korea has annoyed a surprisingly large number of people. Rodman is accused of being cozy with a brutal and murderous regime and, if the critics are to be believed, his presence gives the young North Korean dictator a measure of credibility and probably even boosts his domestic support – as if the average North Korean had ever heard of Rodman before he began to frequent Pyongyang.

To a large extent such ideas might reflect a somewhat exaggerated view of America’s importance, quite typical of many in the United