Nation Branding and International Politics

Nation branding is regarded as essential for competitiveness among countries, but the idea of branding nations is often derided as lacking seriousness, despite the fact it is an issue that should be of central concern to international relations. While nation branding has been on the radar of scholars for decades, with a focus mostly in marketing, communication, and media studies, as well as political geography, 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. Mobilising 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.