Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice was the ground-breaking first textbook to provide an overview of this recently established but fast-growing practice, in which the principles of brand management are applied to countries rather than companies. Many governments have invested in nation branding in order to strengthen their country's influence, improve its reputation, or boost tourism, trade and investment. This new edition has been comprehensively revised and its influential original framework modified to reflect the very latest changes to this still-developing field. It remains an accessible blend of theory and practice rich with international examples and contributions. Updates to this edition: New international cases of countries as diverse as China, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Cuba, India, Great Britain and many more; New contributions from distinguished scholars, diplomats and businesspeople providing a range of case studies, practitioner insights and academic perspectives; New Companion Website to support the book featuring instructor aids such as PowerPoint presentations for each chapter and an instructor manual; This much-anticipated update to an influential book is an essential introduction to nation branding for students and policy makers.

By taking corporate marketing concepts and applying it to countries, “nation branding” is a way for these regions to enhance their reputations and project a desired image for international recognition. New modes of publicity and marketing geared towards geographic location fall into this category, leading nation branding to have vast benefits for the economics and societies of countries. New marketing strategies have emerged and are being adopted to consequently brand countries with this purpose of economic growth. By studying these emerging strategies and methods, nations can best develop a desired brand and reputation to foster growth and prosperity. The Handbook of Research on Future Policies and Strategies for Nation Branding discusses how exactly nation branding works to benefit the function and mission of these nations along with showing how nation branding can be used as a strategic asset for the redesign of economic, political, and social characteristics of a country. The chapters outline the given situation of nations and the nature and implications of the brand that is required, measure branding inference, and propose future steps for nation branding. This book is a critical reference source for brand managers, tourism professionals, marketers, advertisers, government officials, travel agencies, academicians, researchers, and students working in the fields of international relations, economics, social sciences, business studies, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

A recent coinage within international relations, “nation branding” designates the process of highlighting a country’s positive characteristics for promotional purposes, using techniques similar to those employed in marketing and public relations. Nation Branding in Modern History takes an innovative approach to illuminating this contested concept, drawing on fascinating case studies in the United States, China, Poland, Suriname, and many other countries, from the nineteenth century to the present. It supplements these empirical contributions with a series of historiographical essays and analyses of key primary documents, making for a rich and multivalent investigation into the nexus of cultural marketing, self-representation, and political power.

This book investigates the political implications of country promotion through practices of ‘nation-branding’ by drawing on contemporary examples from the sports, urban development and higher education sector in Kazakhstan and Qatar. Nation-branding has emerged as a central practice of international politics, where it is commonly understood as a vain, superficial selling technique with little political salience. Drawing on shared insights from practice theory and constructivist notions of nationalism, identity and power, this book challenges this reading and instead argues that nation-branding is neither neutral nor primarily economically motivated, but inherently politicised and tied to the legitimation of current political regimes. The starting point for the analysis is a range of everyday practices and sites long ignored by international relations scholars. In particular, the book traces how the political leadership in Kazakhstan and Qatar have used participation in the international sports circuit, spectacular urban development, and the construction of ‘world-class’ universities to first produce and then stabilize new ideas about their state. Providing a new analytical perspective on nation-branding, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Middle Eastern and Central Asian studies, International Relations, and Cultural and Political Geography.

Nation Branding, Public Relations and Soft Power: Corporatizing Poland provides an empirically grounded analysis of changes in the way in which various actors seek to manage Poland’s national image in world opinion. It explores how and why changes in political economy have shaped these actors and their use of soft power in a way that is influenced by public relations, corporate communication, and marketing practices. By examining the discourse and practices of professional nation branders who have re-shaped the relationship between collective identities and national image management, it plots changes in the way in which Poland’s national image is communicated, and culturally reshaped, creating tensions between national identity and democracy. The book demonstrates that nation branding is a consequence of the corporatization of political governance, soft power and national identity, while revealing how the Poland "brand" is shaping public and foreign affairs. Challenging and original, this book will be of interest to scholars in public relations, corporate communications, political marketing and international relations.

Nation branding is regarded as essential for competitiveness among countries, but the idea of branding nations is often derided as lacking seriousness. While nation branding has been on the radar of scholars of marketing, communication, and media studies, as well as political geography for decades, it has only made a small dent into the international relations field. In Nation Branding and International Politics Christopher Browning argues that international relations should take nation branding seriously. Nation branding not only involves the issues of culture, identity, and status – which are of principal concern to IR – but it is also a different and potentially fruitful way of reconceptualizing statehood. Mobilizing work on ontological security, anxiety, status, and distinction, and grounding the analysis in a broader historical context, Browning finds that nation branding is politically significant, though not necessarily for the reasons its advocates claim. Specifically, the book raises important questions about nation branding’s influence on the constitution of national identity, the reframing of citizenship, and the topography of contemporary geopolitics. Nation Branding and International Politics considers how status, prestige, and reputation are constructed and maintained in international society, and how, perhaps, this construction and maintenance may be changing – just as the practice of nation branding is changing.

This book critically discusses the role of sports in nation branding and public diplomacy during the years 2020 and 2022, as the world was going through a global pandemic and health, economic, social, and political crises. The book argues that the use of sports for nation branding and public diplomacy goals is not new, but the changes the world went through required nations, places, communities, and individuals to modify and adapt the ways they use sports for country image purposes. After discussing global changes, the book outlines the theoretical frameworks of nation branding and public diplomacy, and discusses their manifestations through the evolution of the FIFA World Cup, the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the role of Title IX in American sports, the European Super League, the Oregon22 World Athletics Championships, the emergence of sport-tech diplomacy, and though the role of sports and the global order in an ever-changing world.

This book provides an explanation of nation branding theory and practice within the European context, exploring how countries build and manage their reputations globally. Each chapter focuses on a specific European country, selected from a cross-section of large, medium-sized and small countries to provide a breadth of cases from across the continent. The chapters are written from a wide range of academic and practitioner perspectives. Nation Branding in Europe is valuable supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students interested in nation branding and will appeal to students from marketing, communications, and international relations disciplines. Outside of academia, the book will be of interest to those working in the areas of public diplomacy and strategic communications, as well as public relations and branding practitioners involved in designing nation branding campaigns.

This open access book examines how creating a national brand assisted Qatar in absorbing the shock and awe following the outburst of the crisis with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates in May 2017. The authors discuss the country's diplomatic performance, which was characterized by five main factors that helped Qatar to deal with the crisis successfully. These factors include the failure of the element of surprise, years of building Qatar’s national brand, Qatar's arsenal of soft power, international alliances, and the opponents’ quandary. This book further scrutinizes Qatar’s role in the region and all questions related to this role through the lenses of its nation brand. The book provides explanations for the success of Qatar in absorbing the “shock and awe” in the early stage of the last Gulf crisis, presenting various arguments on how establishing a nation brand helped Qatar to deal with the crisis successfully. The book follows an original approach that views the Qatari case from a scientific perspective, investigating the art of nation branding. It will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of international relations, psychology, political science, and journalism, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of soft power, nation branding, Middle East studies, and diplomacy.

In the globalized world of today, a well-elaborated, long-term oriented nation branding strategy can help nations to improve and to better control of their nation image. Nation branding activities increase the countries’ competitiveness in the global marketplace, and help to foster the tourism arrivals, inward foreign direct investment flows and exports, and further, they help to attract talented workforce and students. Despite its growing importance, most Latin American countries still have not engaged enough in the area of nation branding, and mostly only focus their activities on the tourism promotion. The region’s countries have a good image regarding soft factors such as their people and tourism attractions but have a weak image regarding their products and investment opportunities. Brazil has a relatively good nation image in many dimensions but still has not developed an extensive nation branding strategy. Chile and Colombia are among the Latin American countries which have started to conduct more complete nation branding activities. Although, such advances can be observed, there is still a lot of improvement potential in the nation branding practices of Latin American countries.