Nation Branding in Modern History

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.

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.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Beyond Marketing and Diplomacy: Exploring the Historical Origins of Nation Branding
Carolin Viktorin, Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht, Annika Estner, and Marcel K. Will

PART I: BRANDING THE NATION AND SELLING THE STATE: CASE STUDIES

Chapter 1. Nation Branding Amid Civil War: Publishing US Foreign Policy Documents to Define and Defend the Republic, 1861-66
William B. McAllister

Chapter 2. From the Moralizing Appeal for Patriotic Consumption to Nation Branding: Austria and Switzerland
Oliver Kühschelm

Chapter 3. Branding Internationalism: Displaying Art and International Cooperation in the Interwar Period
Ilaria Scaglia

Chapter 4. High Culture to the Rescue: Japan’s Nation Branding in the United States, 1934-40
John Gripentrog

Chapter 5. All Publicity is Good Publicity? Advertising, Public Relations, and the Branding of Spain in the United Kingdom, 1945-69
Carolin Viktorin

Chapter 6. The Art of Branding: Rethinking American Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War
Michael L. Krenn

Chapter 7. Suriname: Nation Building and Nation Branding in a Postcolonial State, 1945-2015
Rosemarijn Hoefte

Chapter 8. A New Brand for Postcommunist Europe
Beata Ociepka

PART II: PROMISES AND CHALLENGES OF NATION BRANDING: COMMENTARIES ON CASE STUDIES

Chapter 9. Historicizing the Relationship between Nation Branding and Public Diplomacy
Justin Hart

Chapter 10. Nation Branding: A Twenty-First Century Tradition
Melissa Aronczyk

Chapter 11. The History of Nation Branding and Nation Branding as History
Mads Mordhorst

Annotated Sources

Preface: The Diversity of Primary Sources and the Concept of Nation Branding

1. Introduction to Baron Dan Inō, “The Japanese People and their Gardens” (1935)
   John Gripentrog
2. Images from the 1935-36 International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London
   Ilaria Scaglia
3. A Memorandum on the Advancing American Art Fiasco of 1947
   Michael L. Krenn

Index