This seminal book explores the complex relationship between popular geopolitics and nation branding among the Newly Independent States of Eurasia, and their combined role in shaping contemporary national image and statecraft within and beyond the region. It provides critical perspectives on international relations, nationalism, and national identity through the use of innovative approaches focusing on popular culture, new media, public diplomacy, and alternative "narrators" of the nation. By positing popular geopolitics and nation branding as contentious forces and complementary flows, the study explores the tensions and elisions between national self-image and external perceptions of the nation, and how this complex interplay has become integral to contemporary global affairs.

This book brings together scholars from across a variety of academic disciplines to assess the current state of the subfield of popular geopolitics. It provides an archaeology of the field, maps the flows of various frameworks of analysis into (and out of) popular geopolitics, and charts a course forward for the discipline. It explores the real-world implications of popular culture, with a particular focus on the evolving interdisciplinary nature of popular geopolitics alongside interrelated disciplines including media, cultural, and gender studies.

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.

Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice provides a theoretical framework, alongside insightful examples from the practice of nation banding, in which the principles of brand strategy and management are applied to countries globally. This new edition has been comprehensively updated and its influential original framework modified to reflect the very latest changes in the field. It remains an accessible blend of theory and practice rich with international examples and contributions. Updates to this edition: New Academic Perspectives and Practitioner Insights in each chapter Updated and new cases from a broad range of nations and cultures Fresh coverage of online branding and social media New material covering the critical and ethical issues of nation branding, including the limitations Updated references and sources Updated online resources, including PowerPoint slides and Instructor Manual with end-of-chapter discussion points and suggested answers This is an essential introduction to nation branding for students of Marketing, Brand Management, Communications, and Public and International Relations, as well as policy makers looking for a rigorous yet applied approach.

Now in a thoroughly revised edition, this innovative and engaging text surveys the field of popular geopolitics, exploring the relationship between popular culture and international relations from a geographical perspective. Jason Dittmer and Daniel Bos connect global issues with the questions of identity and subjectivity that we feel as individuals, arguing that who we think we are influences how we understand the world. Building on the strengths of the first edition, each chapter focuses on a specific theme—such as representation, audience, and affect—by explaining the concept and then outlining some of the emerging debates that have revolved around it. New and updated case studies—including heritage and social media—help illustrate the significance of the concepts and capture the ways popular culture shapes our understandings of geopolitics within everyday life. Students will enjoy the text's accessibility and colorful examples, and instructors will appreciate the way the book brings together a diverse, multidisciplinary literature and makes it understandable and relevant.

This book brings together scholars from across a variety of disciplines who use different methodologies to interrogate the changing nature of Russian culture in the twenty-first century. The book considers a wide range of cultural forms that have been instrumental in globalizing Russia. These include literature, art, music, film, media, the internet, sport, urban spaces, and the Russian language. The book pays special attention to the processes by which cultural producers negotiate between Russian government and global cultural capital. It focuses on the issues of canon, identity, soft power and cultural exchange. The book provides a conceptual framework for analyzing Russia as a transnational entity and its contemporary culture in the globalized world.

This book presents a new perspective on how Russia projects itself to the world. Distancing itself from familiar, agency-driven International Relations accounts that focus on what ‘the Kremlin’ is up to and why, it argues for the need to pay attention to deeper, trans-state processes over which the Kremlin exerts much less control. Especially important in this context is mediatization, defined as the process by which contemporary social and political practices adopt a media form and follow media-driven logics. In particular, the book emphasizes the logic of the feedback loop or ‘recursion’, showing how it drives multiple Russian performances of national belonging and nation projection in the digital era. It applies this theory to recent issues, events, and scandals that have played out in international arenas ranging from television, through theatre, film, and performance art, to warfare.

Analyzing the use of civilization in Russian-language political and media discourses, intellectual and academic production, and artistic practices, this book discusses the rise of civilizational rhetoric in Russia and global politics. Why does the concept of civilization play such a prevalent role in current Russian geopolitical and creative imaginations? The contributors answer this question by exploring the extent to which discourse on civilization penetrates Russian identity formations in imperial and national configurations, and at state and civil levels of society. Although the chapters offer different interpretations and approaches, the book shows that Russian civilizationism is a form of ideological production responding to the challenges of globalization. The concept of "civilization," while increasingly popular as a conceptual tool in identity formation, is also widely contested in Russia today. This examination of contemporary Russian identities and self-understanding will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Russian area studies and Slavic studies, intellectual and cultural history, nationalism and imperial histories, international relations, discourse analysis, cultural studies, media studies, religion studies, and gender studies.

The progression of the independent states that were created after the collapse of the Soviet Union has become a prevalent area of research as these countries continue to make infrastructural strides. These regions possess vastly desirable natural resources including oil, gas, and minerals, causing this section of the world to have rising global importance as they continue to improve their economy, educational systems, and tourism industries. Economic, Educational, and Touristic Development in Asia is a pivotal reference source that provides a thorough examination of the contemporary progression of several recently formed countries within Central Asia. While highlighting topics such as hospitality marketing, anti-corruption reform, and entrepreneurship, this publication explores the technological, educational, and security enhancements being made in these areas, as well as how this region can strengthen its prosperity by strategically utilizing their globally-coveted natural resources. This book is ideally designed for economists, higher education faculty, provosts, chancellors, scholars, practitioners, policymakers, business professionals, marketers, restaurateurs, hotel managers, tour developers, travel agencies, government officials, strategists, educators, researchers, and graduate students.

If socialism did not end as abruptly as is sometimes perceived, what remnants of it linger today and will continue to linger? Moreover, if postsocialism is an umbrella term for the uncertain times of various transitions that followed in socialism's wake, how might the "post" be rendered complicated by the notion that the unfinished business of socialism continues to influence the trajectory of the future? The Future of (Post)Socialism examines this unfinished business through various disciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches that seek to illuminate the postsocialist future as a cultural and social fact. Drawn from the fields of history, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, education, linguistics, literature, and cultural studies, contributors analyze various cultural forms and practices of the formerly socialist cultural spaces of Eastern Europe. In so doing, they question the teleology of linear transitional narratives and of assumptions about postsocialist linear progress, concluding that things operate more as continued interruptions of a perpetually liminal state rather than as neat endings and new beginnings.