Article

Towards a new conditionality? The convergence of international development, nation brands and soft power in the British National Security Strategy

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

Nation brands are intended to act as vehicles for economic development. However, the role of the nation brands of developed countries in shaping the economic development of developing countries has not been explored to the same degree. Using the example of Britain’s 2010 National Security Strategy, this article argues that the two-decade long decline in conditional aid has been superseded by efforts to influence developing countries through coordinated aid, diplomatic, commercial and security strategies. Such strategies seek to use brand identities to transpose influence between different societal sectors of developing countries, thus pursuing structural influence over developing societies through post-conditional techniques. This article therefore positions nation brands as a key component of contemporary soft power strategies, which are intended to stimulate growth, instigate infrastructural reform, assert ideational norms, and promote the donor country as a partner of choice. As such, it presents a unique perspective on the coordinated application of brands and aid as complementary tools of soft power.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... For them, this cultural wave is interconnected with the state's economic profitability particularly in the tourism sector. Later in 1994, the government created the cultural bureau and gave full responsibility to the minister of culture and sport to boost the Korean audiovisual industry's fame and promote the Korean film abroad in foreign theaters, as a result, the minister proposed a tax break incentive which in turn attracted the attention of the Korean investors [44]. ...
... This economic approach of utilizing culture as a competitive strategy was supported by the former noble prize winner president (Kim Dae-jung). In 1998 his administration adopted the broadcast Video promotion plan, in addition to installing a Korean cultural content agency (KOCCA) in 2001, which specialized in developing the cultural industry [44]. This initiative was embraced by his successor Roh Moo-hyun who continued to encourage the cultural industry to deliver sophisticated Korean-made entertainment. ...
... Likewise, countries complement soft power tools with their domestic and foreign policies as it facilitates the states to carry on their agenda easily in the global world without running to physical capacities. In terms of the economy, South Korea's government has been a major stakeholder in cultural industries, after their realization that they can play a key role in the national economy [44]. South Korea's soft power usage has dismantled the stereotypes of "you can't be attractive in the eyes of other countries unless you have a strong international power that presents you as a hegemonic". ...
Article
Full-text available
Over the past years, the concept of hard power has been overtaken by a new approach “Soft power”. As a result, many countries compete to take advantage of this new power at their disposal by implementing in their foreign policies. For instance, numerous countries such as India (Bollywood), and the U.S (Hollywood) have extensively benefited from their soft power, as both countries’ cinemas are considered the most potent cultural export. The following paper explores how the Japanese and South Korean government have been exploiting their soft power by coinciding with their national interest. Both countries were selected based on their limited military intervention despite dedicating a decent budget amount for defense. Especially when looking at Japan’s firm stand policy that adheres to a non-military approach, therefore, increasing the probability of seeking other alternatives to expand its state’s strength. In addition, the selection was carried out by taking into consideration the strong influence they hold in the region in the context of cultural aspects. Furthermore, we address how these tools of “Soft power” such as cultural diplomacy, education, and foreign aid have transformed both countries’ images, especially Japan which had been criticized for its past imperialistic days. The article is qualitative in nature, we referred to the sufficient available relevant works of literature and papers to present soft power and its implication by focusing on two East Asian countries. Finally, we conclude that both countries deploy cultural diplomacy and education for diplomatic purposes and national branding while in the context of foreign aid diplomacy we suggest that it is more than of its humanitarian claims.
... According to Figure 2, nation branding comprises 13 codes grouped to form one concept (the components of nation branding). These components are: branding techniques (Hakala and Lemmetyinen, 2011;Montanari et al., 2019;Sasikumar, 2017;Wu, 2017;Yousaf and Huaibin, 2014); marketing communication (Amujo and Otubanjo, 2012;Bolin and Miazhevich, 2018;Frig and Sorsa, 2020;Manor, 2017;Merkelsen and Rasmussen, 2016;Pamment, 2018); public diplomacy (Avraham, 2009;Cassinger et al., 2016;Che-Ha et al., 2016;Fan, 2010;He et al., 2020;Knott et al., 2015Knott et al., , 2016Rawson, 2007;Yalkin, 2018); public relations (Valaskivi, 2016;White and Kolesnicov, 2015); brand ambassadors (Knott et al., 2017;Ren and Gyim othy, 2013); nation brand personality (Hao et al., 2021;Mariutti and Giraldi, 2020;Rojas-Méndez et al., 2015); nation brand image (Rodner and Kerrigan, 2018); nation branding strategy (Roozen et al., 2017;Silvanto and Ryan, 2018;Tatevossian, 2008;Varga, 2013;Widler, 2007); national identity (Papadopoulos et al., 2016;Scott et al., 2011;Song and Sung, 2013); country image (Hakala et al., 2013); umbrella brands (Ishii and Watanabe, 2015); national symbols (Hassan and Mahrous, 2019;Ishii and Watanabe, 2015); and international mega events (Chen, 2012). ...
... Economic and financial concepts, with 16 codes, include, among others: economic growth (Browning, 2016;Che-Ha et al., 2016;Edwards and Ramamurthy, 2016;Hassan and Mahrous, 2019;Pamment, 2018); attracting tourists (Amujo and Otubanjo, 2012;Avraham, 2020;Barr, 2012;Lee and Chun, 2017;Papadopoulos et al., 2016;Rojas-Méndez et al., 2015;Yousaf and Huaibin, 2014); attracting investment (Browning, 2016;Fetscherin, 2010;Kalamova and Konrad, 2010;Lahrech et al., 2020;Montanari et al., 2019;Song and Sung, 2013); attracting business (Frig and Sorsa, 2020;Hakala and Lemmetyinen, 2011;Kam and Tse, 2020;Mariutti and Tench, 2015;Roozen et al., 2017); and internal economic stability (Bigi et al., 2011;Hakala et al., 2013;Rawson, 2007). Awareness of country Positive evaluation of products or services from a particular country Nation brand commitment Brand attachment Assist large national firms expand into international markets Help market nation's products and services Gain market share in key industry sectors Protect businesses and brands from undesirable and negative effects of government, politics or other related domestic or international actions Add value to the products produced in the country Attract talent and professionals Purchase of products Business concepts comprise 16 codes, such as positive evaluation of products or services from a particular country (Che-Ha et al., 2016;Ishii and Watanabe, 2015;Loo and Davies, 2006;Yalkin, 2018); assisting large national firms in expanding into international markets (Bigi et al., 2011;Lee, 2011;Montanari et al., 2019); helping market nation's products and services (Amujo and Otubanjo, 2012;Fan, 2006;Rojas-Méndez et al., 2013a); gaining market share in key industry sectors (Edwards and Ramamurthy, 2016;Roozen et al., 2017); and purchase of products (Kalamova and Konrad, 2010;Kim et al., 2013;Lee and Chun, 2017;Scott et al., 2011;White and Kolesnicov, 2015). ...
... Political concepts cover six codes, such as: enhancing a country's political conditions (Edwards and Ramamurthy, 2016;Fan, 2010;Frig and Sorsa, 2020;Gupta et al., 2020;Pamment, 2018); international political influence (Buhmann and Ingenhoff, 2015;Kemming and Humborg, 2010;Mihailovich, 2006;Sasikumar, 2017;Song and Sung, 2013); and reducing the impact of negative political events (Bigi et al., 2011;Hakala et al., 2013;Rawson, 2007) among others. ...
Article
Purpose This paper aims to provide an integrated model of nation branding, propose a comprehensive definition of this concept and differentiate between nation branding and other related constructs. Design/methodology/approach To analyze nation branding academic literature, this paper used a systematic literature review approach to investigate academic studies related to nation and country branding. All relevant studies on the nation and country branding between 1996 and mid-2021 were extracted from six selected databases, including Elsevier’s Science Direct, Emerald, Sage, Wiley, Springer and Jstor, by using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis process. The reviewed papers were coded and analyzed to extract themes and concepts. Findings The results of this paper show that nation branding is influenced by six main factors, namely, business and marketing, political, social and cultural, economic and labor, international and environmental factors; it comprises one key component, that is, nation branding; it results in five major consequences, including social, economic and financial, business, international and political consequences, and is moderated mainly by socio-demographic variables. Additional contributions of this paper are the proposal of a comprehensive definition of nation branding based on the extant literature and identifying nation branding differences with other constructs that sometimes have been previously used interchangeably with nation branding. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research in the field. Originality/value This paper uses the themes and concepts uncovered by the analysis to conceptualize nation branding, provides an integrated model of nation branding and distinguishes it from other related branding concepts. This paper also summarizes what nation branding is versus what it is not.
... The Moon Jae-In government is determined to maintain that low ratio (ODA Korea 2018). Strategic long-term expectations from bilateral aid in the form of appreciation, attraction, visibility and credibility as the new conditionalities and the short-term economic interests play an important role in maintaining this ratio (Kalinowski and Cho 2012;Olbrich and Shim 2012;Pamment 2018). ...
... While some academics and politicians consider contributions to global public goods as altruism, a better way to put it is as "a manifestation of enlightened self-interest" (Cooper 2011, 321; see also Behringer 2013, 11). Pamment (2018) refers to such an intertwining of nation branding and aid as a soft power tool that is used as "a new conditionality" in the era of post-conditionality. This nexus between international contributions and Korea's image is evident in the policy documents and public speeches of all Korean administrations since 1990s, but more so since later years of Roh Moo-Hyun government. ...
Article
Full-text available
South Korea’s (hereafter Korea) recent middle power diplomacy has attracted worldwide attention. Korean administrations have attempted to steer the country along a middle power path, where it can play a more active global role that is commensurate with the size of its economy. Most accounts take Korea’s self-declared identity as a middle power for granted; that is, they do not evaluate the non-conforming data. On the other hand, this paper traces the process of why the country projects a middle power identity. This paper first addresses alternative explanations of the positional, behavioral and identity approaches to answer this question. Following the failure of these explanations, this paper proposes that Korea’s more assertive projection of its proclaimed middle power identity was a nation branding project that aimed to tackle the so-called Korea discount and to achieve its aspired place in the global prestige and status hierarchy. In turn, Korea envisioned its improved standing in the world helping it achieve its preferred global outcomes, particularly in shaping a favorable international environment surrounding the country.
... Pamment (2016b) positions "nation brands as a key component of contemporary soft power strategies," which may be used to leverage economic growth and political influence. In what he describes as an era of "postconditionality," programs that promote development may inscribe less tangible benefits to donors, such as encouraging recipient adoption of donor language, values, and processes (Pamment 2016b). ...
... Bilateral agencies use their logos as part of broader branding strate gies in which they promote their nations as benefactors. These are com plicated processes, as evidenced through Pamment's (2016b) analysis of the UK's "GREAT" campaign, building toward a contested yet asserted national identity meant to be more unified than fragmented. Many donors unite cultural programs with economic incentives in their public diplomacy strategies. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Global development intervention is intended to benefit donor and recipient communities through strategic and constructive social change. Recipient communities expect to improve social and political conditions, while donor communities expect to be recognized and appreciated for their resource allocation. Donors promote their interests through branding their interventions in ways that are designed to attract public attention. Bilateral donors engage in nation branding as an exercise in soft power. I situate bilateral branding as a product of development intervention through a targeted analysis of dominant bilateral agencies’ use of logos associated with their national agencies or aid programs. The author explores the connection between development branding and business approaches, resonant with an emerging privatization in the field, considering the consequences to engaging effective and ethical development programs. Although national branding campaigns are designed to promote positive images, these communication strategies may encompass multiple goals, from raising legitimacy and encouraging financial support among donor citizens, toward inspiring appreciation from those in recipient communities. But beyond these more explicit goals, we need to consider the potential consequences of these branding strategies to donor–recipient relationships, given the structuring of business approaches engaged.
... In most cases, the dilemma is between conditions attached for short-term financial gains such as mandating that aid recipients buy from companies in the donor country or for long-term socio-political gains such as establishing strategic partnerships (Dreher et al. 2018). Hence, otherwise "unconditional" aid also typically introduces new conditionalities through indirect and long-term strategic socio-political objectives (Mosley et al. 2004;Pamment 2018). It is also the case that most countries give ODA strategically rather than where it is most needed, which is another indication that ODA is designed to gain something in return (Alesina and Dollar 2000;Dreher et al. 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
Soft power has become a catchall phrase that suffers from analytical ambiguity. Extant literature on soft power often conflates it with other kinds of power. In this article, I suggest examining soft power from the power recipient’s perspective, emphasizing the latter’s agency. I introduce three ideal-type explanations for power recipients’ compliance with power wielders’ desires: fear, appetite, and spirit. Fear- or appetite-based compliance is in line with coercion or inducement, respectively, in Joseph Nye’s soft power formulation. As such, soft power arguments require ruling out compliance based on fear and/ or appetite. Soft power is rare in world politics, and it often builds on the material preponderance of the main custodians of the standard of civilization, that is, the central actors in the (regional) international society in question, leading to soft power’s correlation with hard power.
... What are its greatest soft power assets and how can it maintain and improve its resources? Ever since the concept of soft power was first coined by Joseph Nye (1990), it has gained increased traction in the UK, with recent academic papers analysing relative British soft power in a number of areas, ranging from sports to development aid (Pamment 2018;Woodward 2020). Beyond academia, foreign policymakers in the UK have also given heed to Britain's soft power assets and how to enhance them. ...
Article
Full-text available
Enhancing Britain's soft power has been a policy objective of the Conservative-led governments in the past few years. Policy relevant research on the matter mostly measures the positive perceptions of other countries' publics toward the UK. This article proposes to dig deeper into the attitudes of foreign decision-makers in an unobtrusive manner to supplement these previous studies. As an illuminating case study, it investigates the views of the Turkish politicians by using data from the parliamentary proceedings of 2011-2018. This analysis reveals that the strongest soft power asset of the UK in Turkey is its exemplary political values, government and democracy. The biggest challenge is historical experiences of animosity that leads to inherent mistrust. Evidence also demonstrates that the UK is seen more positively in conjunction with other countries and more negatively on its own. This finding stresses the significance of multilateral cooperation to augment UK's soft power.
... Nowadays, the formation of this policy should, as a rule of thumb, take into account the lack of a clear border between the internal and external security of the state. The art of big politics consists precisely in the ability to find the necessary proportions between the internal and external aspects of national security, taking into account the whole spectrum of geopolitical realities (Pamment 2018). Unilateral concern for the external geopolitical aspects of national security, for example, its military aspect, with the oblivion of its internal aspects (economy, level and quality of life of the people, degree of democratization of society, etc.) can bring down the entire state security system (Chapman 2018). ...
... Lowered fishing costs contribute to this tendency, especially on the high seas, partly due to the use of forced or underpaid labour on vessels and in processing plants (Sala et al., 2018;Tickler et al., 2018a). The emphasis is on security at the expense of international development (Pamment, 2018;Crane and Maguire, 2017). ...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Global change drivers, such as population growth, increasing consumption, inequity in resource distribution, overfishing, climate change and pollution, are challenging the sustainability of global coupled human-natural seafood production system. Modelling the linkages between the biophysical and socio-economic components of the seafood production systems is a useful way to explore the interactions between these drivers and policy responses. Moreover, combining the use of models and scenarios can then provide quantitative projections for pathways of changes in ocean human-natural systems. This report documents a newly developed model, herein called Dynamic Integrated Marine Climate, Biodiversity, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood Market Model (DIVERSE) to project future pathways to seafood sustainability under global change. DIVERSE is supported by a system of linked and harmonised infrastructure of environmental, biodiversity, fisheries and socioeconomic databases (Appendix). In parallel, scenarios of direct and indirect drivers of changes in the marine human-natural systems are developed based on the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) and the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) frameworks. DIVERSE is grounded in the framework of coupled human-natural systems for the ocean. Chapter 1 describes the basic structure of DIVERSE and its potential applications. Specifically, the different sub-components of DIVERSE and their main interconnections are introduced. Some of the overarching research questions in the context of exploring scenarios and pathways for ocean futures under climate change that can be addressed by DIVERSE are also highlighted.
... He further argues that foreign policy is, in fact, a manifestation of hard power, as a nation needs to invest money, thus hard power, to develop its sources into soft power. For example, although foreign aid-a form of hard power-is a theme in soft power analyses, it has been understudied and is not assumed to have a pivotal role in explaining soft power (Pamment, 2018). While the efforts of U.S. Agency for International Development has had significant role since the Cold War in expanding American soft power (Cull, 2008;Essex 2013), more recent debates around China's foreign aid to African countries furthered the debate on the role of hard power elements in generating soft power (King, 2013). ...
Article
Since the mid-2000s, Turkey has incorporated a soft power discourse into its foreign policy agenda and shifted its attention toward building up its soft power infrastructure. Up until 2013, Turkey was applauded as a regional powerhouse, an important player in the soft power arena, and a beacon of democracy and stability within an unstable region. However, the restrictions on free speech, media censorship, and the crackdown on the opposition have impacted Turkey’s current soft power ranking. While expanding its diplomatic network and public diplomacy apparatus to wield soft power, Turkey’s global reputation has seen a downward spiral. This article investigates the role that political leadership and political values play in determining Turkey’s soft power capacity. This article’s main contention is that while Turkey increases its global engagement and capacity to appeal non-Western audiences, its capacity to attract international audiences particularly in the West has diminished due to its democratic backsliding.
... The two editors of the book are important representatives of this intersection of two fields. Prior to publication of this book, James Pamment had been a pioneer in bringing together development and public diplomacy with his numerous articles and books (Pamment, 2015(Pamment, , 2016a(Pamment, , 2016b(Pamment, , 2018. Karin Gwinn Wilkins is one of the most authoritative names in the field of development communication. ...
... In the past two decades, discourse and culture-oriented approaches to geopolitical issues in general and to national and international, as well as human, security in particular have thrived (Aradau and Van Munster 2010;Barry, Buzan and Waever 1995;Buzan and Hansen 2009;Debrix 2003;Guerrero-Castro 2013;Hansen 2006;Herschinger 2016;Kirchner and Sperling 2010;Neumann 2010;Nye 1990;Pamment 2016). Scholars have put forward a plethora of research suggestions as well as policy and practice proposals: to clarify and critique discursive conceptions of security (e.g. ...
... Such mobilizations are complex and fragile, however, for their designers must coordinate with (and subordinate themselves to) ongoing military and economic operations, which are typically granted greater secrecy, priority, and autonomy by security officials (Livieratos 2017). In a related study, Pamment (2016) analyzed Britain's 2010 National Security Strategy to depict that government's plan to influence developing countries through the organized use of economic incentives, diplomatic relations, and security partnerships. According to Pamment, such strategies 'seek to use [national] brand identities to transpose influence between different societal sectors of developing countries, thus pursuing structural influence over developing societies through post-conditional techniques' (1). ...
Article
Full-text available
This introduction to the special issue reviews recent developments in interdisciplinary scholarship on security, discourse, and culture. It then reviews recent work in fields of critical intercultural studies to associate these developments with the commitments of Cultural Discourse Studies. It concludes by previewing the essays collected for this issue.
... For more on aid conditionality and its relationship to nation branding, see Pamment (2016). 5. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article traces the limits of branding as a tool for (re)constructing nations as 'imagined communities' (Anderson 1983). Drawing on examples from post-socialist Eastern Europe, I analyse discourses and practices of nation branding from a critical perspective, rooted in the theoretical traditions of political economy and cultural studies. Focusing more closely on branding campaigns implemented by post-Soviet Ukraine and post-war Kosovo — two nations seeking to assert themselves as independent actors on the global stage — I consider the impact of nation branding on national identities and democratic governance. I identify three interconnected limits of the branded national imagination as a structuring discourse for nation building. First, the branded national imagination is structured through its subjection to a foreign gaze; second, it is heavily dependent on commercial transnational media; and third, it produces branded national subjectivities that contradict the lived experiences of national populations. I argue that while nation branding effectively depoliticises national (re)definition, it may in fact serve to reinvigorate ethnic nationalisms in the post-socialist region. Finally, I suggest that although we must be aware of local histories and legacies, the post-socialist experience can inform our understanding of the structuring limits of the branded national imagination in other post-conflict and post-colonial contexts as well.
Article
Aid has become a powerful asset for marketizing a donor's reputation under the guise of social responsibility. By fostering goodwill through capitalizing on their image as “good” donors, states enhance their competitive stance in global affairs over time. This paper examines U.S. foreign aid within the frameworks of social responsibility and the interplay between aid and trade. It assesses the policy gains the U.S. acquires through aid marketization, analyzing commercial returns from aid to 39 countries over 22 years. Employing the gravity equation and a Two‐Stage Least Square (2SLS) method with an instrumental variable approach, the research uncovers significant economic benefits. Findings reveal that U.S. foreign aid increases U.S. exports, with an average return of $8 in exports for every additional dollar spent on aid. This highlights the dual function of foreign aid in building goodwill and generating economic returns, particularly in the context of U.S. foreign policy.
Article
This article is devoted to the analysis of the features of the public diplomacy tool in Russia and Great Britain and the influence of public diplomacy on the formation of national brands . Based on the results of the study, the authors concluded that the potential of the U .K . in the field of “soft power” use is higher than the one in Russia. We explained the reasons for the current situation and made recommendations to improve Russia’s position in the field of developing the potential of “soft power”. In our research, we used institutional, historical, and comparative methods. The empirical basis of thestudy is the articles of scientists studying public diplomacy and “soft power” in Russia and the U.K ., as well as the sites of organizations responsible for the implementation of national public diplomacy and the development of “soft power”.
Article
Full-text available
The main goal of foreign aid should be the support of developing regions; however, due to the rising international requirements on the amount of provided aid, donors start to focus on the benefits aid can bring them as well. Both country-specific and general studies have been conducted to evaluate the return of aid from the donor’s perspective, with the majority of them suggesting that provided aid boosts donor’s exports to the developing countries. As no such analysis exists for the Czech Republic, this paper tries to fill this gap and aims to find out whether there is a positive relationship between the Czech aid and Czech exports. While employing the gravity model of international trade, the study, however, suggests that the Czech aid is not statistically significant for the volume of Czech exports. Unlike other donors, the Czech Republic thus leaves a considerable trade potential arising from the foreign aid untapped. The reasons might be other motives behind the Czech aid (both official and unofficial), poor co-operation of aid and trade policies, or changes in trade patterns.
Article
Full-text available
Public diplomacy (PD) lacks an agreed-upon definition and boundaries. The ambiguity surrounding the conceptualization of the term leads to confusion among scholars and practitioners and hinders the consolidation of PD as an academic field. This article surveys 160 articles and books on PD, categorizes diverse perspectives into a taxonomy, and explores the coherence of each. The taxonomy can be categorized into these perspectives: state-centric, neo-statist, nontraditional, society-centric, and accommodative. The article maps the boundaries of public diplomacy with much needed clear and coherent criteria and positions PD within the broader discipline of international relations. © The Author(s) (2018). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. All rights reserved.
Chapter
This interdisciplinary collection explores new dimensions in the politics of image and aid. The approach taken by this timely volume is to consider a variety of cases drawing upon a combination of theoretical and conceptual lenses that each in their own way combine a focus on aid with a focus on image. The cases in this volume consist of empirical contributions in regions as diverse as Kosovo, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sweden, Colombia, Russia, and China. They seek to explore foreign policy trends originating with some of the most powerful Northern donors in order to see how they are influencing patterns of national development. This introduction outlines some essential themes in the relationship between soft power, public diplomacy, development communication, and nation brands.
Chapter
This chapter discusses elements of Mexico’s incipient public diplomacy strategy attached to its International Development Cooperation channeled through AMEXCID, which is still a relatively young agency. As it struggles with consolidating its internal organization and leadership, coupled with the lack of resources to carry out fully its mandate, these factors constitute a challenge for “branding” Mexico as an emerging economy with the capacity for undertaking global responsibility through its IDC programs and actions. Being a “translator” between different regions in the world and a “nodal point,” AMEXCID is involved in horizontal communication, multistakeholder communication, and communication through social media with domestic and foreign audiences, as well as identity-building activities and the creation of narratives that seek to convey a new image and soft power of Mexico.
Chapter
Drawing on the case of post-war Kosovo, this chapter explores how nation branding intersects with a neoliberal development agenda. The author argues that Kosovo’s “Young Europeans” campaign was an effort to legitimize the adoption of economic policies and ideologies that served the interests of global capital rather than of the local population. Furthermore, the campaign articulated a post-ethnic, cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial national subject, while disregarding real social divisions. By juxtaposing the campaign’s messages with material indicators of life in Kosovo, the analysis raises questions about the winners and losers of neoliberal development. The chapter ends with lessons for a broader understanding of the changing nature of the nation-state under a neoliberal regime and suggests directions for future research at the intersection of public diplomacy and development communication.
Preprint
Full-text available
(For the original article, please go to this link: https://doi.org/10.1093/isp/eky010) The Boundaries of Public Diplomacy and Non-State Actors: A Taxonomy of Perspectives Public diplomacy (PD) lacks an agreed-upon definition and boundaries. The ambiguity surrounding the nature of conceptualization of the term leads to confusion among scholars and practitioners and hinders the consolidation of PD as an academic field. This article surveys 160 articles and books on PD and categorizes diverse perspectives into a taxonomy and explores the coherence of each: State-Centric Perspectives, Neo-Statist Perspectives, Nontraditional Perspectives, Society-Centric Perspectives and Accommodative Perspectives. The article maps the boundaries of public diplomacy with much-needed clear and coherent criteria and positions PD within the broader discipline of International Relations (IR). Keywords: public diplomacy, non-state actors, taxonomy, diplomacy studies, international relations theories
Article
Full-text available
According to nation branding consultants, problems of underdevelopment and global inequality are, to a significant extent, a product of the negative images peddled by charities and the broader development industry. While such images secure donations, it is argued they deter more sustainable investments. In contrast, consultants argue that concerted nation-branding strategies offer much better solutions to problems of underdevelopment. This article subjects such claims to critical examination and argues that while the diagnosis of the problem may have some merit, the solution offered is more problematic. This is because nation-branding practices are inherently status quo oriented and reflective of a neoliberal understanding of the nature of (under)development. Moreover, nation branding also entails a troubling commodification of identity and culture as well as unsettling implications in respect of extant understandings of 'good governance'. Finally, the article suggests that the dichotomy drawn between aid and nation branding cannot be upheld; rather, it is a device used to legitimise a market for the services of nation-branding consultants.
Article
Full-text available
The paper considers the current state of Vietnam’s foreign trade relations over the past 20 years and provides an assessment of the foreign trade factor and its role in the national economic development. The commodity and regional pattern of Vietnam’s foreign trade is studied, with focus on the analysis of trends in foreign economic relations under conditions of economic modernization of the country
Article
Full-text available
The existing research on international democracy promotion is characterised by a peculiar tension. On the one hand, many scholars agree that, since 1990, democracy promotion has indeed become a significant aim guiding the foreign and development policies of North-Western democracies. On the other hand, there is a far-reaching consensus that this normative goal is regularly ignored once it collides with economic and/or security interests. This article challenges the notion that we can understand the motives and drivers behind democracy promotion by assuming that interests and norms represent two neatly separated and clearly ranked types of factors. It argues that democracy promotion policies are the result of a complex interaction of interests and norms. After first developing this argument theoretically, the article presents results from a comparative research project on the US and German democracy promotion that support this claim. Link to the article: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jird/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/jird201433a.html
Article
Full-text available
In current discussions, many commentators express a fear that ‘broad’ human security approaches are being sidelined by the rise of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) and the ‘narrow’ focus on military intervention. An alternative reading is sketched out here, which suggests that debates over ‘narrow’ or ‘broad’ human security frameworks have undertheorized the discursive paradigm at the heart of human security. This paradigm is drawn out in terms of the juxtaposition of preventive human security practices of resilience, working upon the empowerment of the vulnerable, and the interventionist security practices of liberal internationalism, working upon the protection of victims. It is suggested that human security can be conceptually analysed in terms of post-intervention, as a shift away from liberal internationalist claims of Western securing or sovereign agency and towards a concern with facilitating or developing the self-securing agency – resilience – of those held to be the most vulnerable. This approach takes us beyond the focus on the technical means of intervention – whether coercive force is deployed or not – and allows us to see how international intervention, including under the R2P, increasingly operates under the paradigm of resilience and human security, thereby evading many of the problems confronted by liberal framings of intervention.
Article
Full-text available
Through reviewing the UK Coalition Government’s reconfiguration of the security–development nexus, this paper tracks a move away from the ‘securitisation of development’, toward the ‘developmentisation of security’. It demonstrates how discourses of capacity building from the bottom-up have replaced the assertions of global cosmopolitanism of the Blair years. We argue that the Coalition is attempting to portray this as a ‘post-interventionist’ approach, in an attempt to resolve the crisis of faith in legal accountability, moral responsibility and political responsibility inherited from the previous administration, and respond to their legacy of international interventions. Rather than emphasise the agency of liberators, the UK Coalition therefore now cultivates the image of a chaotic world, populated by vulnerable subjects in need of empowerment, where instrumental interventions are less certain. Thus, reconfiguring the intervention/non-intervention binary, more recent engagements in Libya, Afghanistan and the Arab Spring have been framed by and retreated into facilitating the resilience of non-Western subjects.
Article
Full-text available
The Obama administration has embraced ‘engagement’ as the dominant concept informing US public diplomacy. Despite its emphasis on facilitating dialogue with and among Muslims overseas, this article demonstrates that, in practice, engagement aims to leverage social media and related technologies to persuade skeptical audiences to empathize with American policies. Indeed, its primary means of implementation – participatory interactions with foreign publics – is inherently duplicitous. Through the authors’ description of how engagement is rooted in long-standing public relations and corporate marketing discourses, and in light of the historical and structural foundations of anti-Americanism, this contemporary public diplomacy strategy is shown to be both contradictory and, ultimately, delusional. As an alternative, the authors argue that an ethical public diplomacy should be pursued, i.e., a public diplomacy that embraces genuine (rather than contrived) dialogue. Although this approach is difficult to achieve (primarily because it implies a direct challenge to entrenched US foreign policy norms), it constitutes a mode of public diplomacy that better reflects the idealized principles of American democracy.
Article
Full-text available
American Quarterly 57.2 (2005) 309-333 On October 14, 2001, President George W. Bush complained at a prime-time press conference, "I'm amazed that there is such misunderstanding of what our country is about that people would hate us. I, like most Americans, I just can't believe it, because I know how good we are." The president's plaintive remark, made only a month after a global outpouring of sympathy for the United States but only a week since American bombs had started falling upon Afghanistan, captured a tension between values and security that is at the heart of the U.S. pursuit of the "war on terror." Strategic goals of "national security" might be achieved with military force, but would the goal of spreading "freedom, democracy, and free enterprise" be assured or jeopardized by the pursuit of military projects? This remains a crucial question for the United States as it seeks to extend the "unipolar moment" of global hegemony in which it has unprecedented power. It is also the defining question in the regeneration of public diplomacy as a strategic tool of U.S. national security. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ignited media discussions about the merits and failings of American public diplomacy and hastened a political review of its role in the planning and execution of foreign policy. U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde, chair of the House International Relations Committee, underlined this role in introducing the Freedom Promotion Act of 2002: "Public diplomacy—which consists of systematic efforts to communicate not with foreign governments but with the people themselves—has a central role to play in the task of making the world safer for the just interests of the United States, its citizens, and its allies." In the last few years, U.S. public diplomacy has undergone intensive reorganization and retooling as it takes on a more prominent propaganda role in the efforts to win the "hearts and minds" of foreign publics. This is not a new role, for the emergent ideas and activities of public diplomacy as the "soft power" wing of American foreign policy have notable historical prefigurations in U.S. international relations. In this essay we situate the history of the cold war paradigm of U.S. public diplomacy within the broader framework of "political warfare" that combines overt and covert forms of information management. However, there are distinctive features to the "new public diplomacy" within both domestic and international contexts of the contemporary American imperium. It operates in a conflicted space of power and value that is a crucial theater of strategic operations for the renewal of American hegemony within a transformed global order. We consider the relation of this new diplomacy to the broader pursuit of political warfare by the state in its efforts to transform material preponderance (in terms of financial, military, and information capital) into effective political outcomes across the globe. In a post-9/11 context, we argue, public diplomacy functions not simply as a tool of national security, but also as a component of U.S. efforts to manage the emerging formation of a neoliberal empire. The term "public diplomacy" was coined by academics at Tufts University in the mid-1960s to "describe the whole range of communications, information, and propaganda" under control of the U.S. government. As the term came into vogue, it effectively glossed (through the implication of both "public" and diplomatic intent) the political...
Article
Full-text available
The export of arms belongs to the most contested issues in democracies. In this article, we examine the economic repercussions of the recent easing of the Japanese arms exports restrictions. We develop a rational expectations argument to understand why some political events increase the income of the arms manufacturers, while other ones reduce it or have no effect at all. Event studies suggest that investors closely observe relevant political developments since stock prices of the six arms manufacturers companies reacted consistently to the announcements and leaks as to whether the arms export restrictions would be lifted or not.
Article
Full-text available
Cultural policy research has so far paid little attention to the field of external cultural policy. The multiple interactions between internal and external cultural politics, however, as well as the growing significance of external cultural policy in the contemporary global arena of cultural and linguistic antagonisms, necessitate its inclusion in the cultural policy research agenda. Focusing on the specific instrument of Cultural Institutes abroad, this paper traces their historical development from the time of their original deployment by the European great powers, to their recent adoption by a host of lesser and greater countries. The different phases of this policy instrument development demonstrate its unique versatility and adaptability to a variety of contexts and functions and, more generally, its strategic role in the workings and processes of external cultural policy. The current state of Cultural Institutes challenges the widespread belief in the declining cultural role of the nation state and affirms the persistence of the ideology of cultural nationalism.
Article
Full-text available
Over the past decade, aid donors have pledged billions of dollars to support peacebuilding efforts in collapsed states and war–torn societies. Peace conditionality — the use of formal performance criteria and informal policy dialogue to encourage the implementation of peace accords and the consolidation of peace — could make aid a more effective tool for building peace. In Bosnia, for example, donors have attempted to link aid to the protection of human rights, co–operation with the international war crimes tribunal, and the right of people displaced by ‘ethnic cleansing’ to return to their homes. Yet the conventional practices and priorities of aid donors pose constraints to the exercise of peace conditionality. This article examines several of these constraints, including the reluctance of donors (particularly the international financial institutions) to acknowledge responsibility for the political repercussions of aid; the competing foreign–policy objectives of donor governments; the humanitarian imperative to aid people whose lives are at risk; and the incentive structures and institutional cultures of donor agencies.
Article
Full-text available
This article discusses the growing body of research on nation branding, arguing for an expanded critical research agenda on this topic. It begins with an extensive overview of scholarly writing on nation branding, based on 186 sources across disciplines. The discussion organizes the sources in three categories, teasing out key themes within and across them. Second, the article proposes a reflexive conceptual map which identifies four types of research orientations across disciplines. Finally, some directions for future critical research on nation branding and its implications are outlined. The ultimate goal of this mapping exercise is to stimulate more work informed by critical theories on the global phenomenon of nation branding. 1 Anholt claims that he coined the term "nation branding" in 1996 (earthspeak.com, n.d.). He is undoubtedly the most prolific author on the subject (e.g., Anholt, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006a, 2007, 2008), and he has played a key role in establishing nation branding through consulting practice, speaking engagements, and efforts to institutionalize it as an academic field with scientific legitimacy. Another "founding father" of nation branding is Wally Olins, also a British brand consultant, whose work for governments, speaking engagements, and publications (e.g., Olins, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005) are commonly referenced.
Chapter
There are many kinds of public diplomacy (PD) currently practiced in Europe. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the national level advocacy and cultural promotion work conducted by foreign and cultural ministries. This chapter explores the PD policies of the “big three” in Europe: France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (UK). Although the UK is well represented in recent scholarly debates, there are surprisingly few studies of French and German PD in the English language.1 In particular, there are no studies that assume a comparative perspective upon their PD as a whole; research has instead focused on cultural diplomacy and broadcasting.2 My argument here is that comparison of these three countries can reveal important themes and issues in the evolution of PD debates that have not been sufficiently represented in contemporary scholarship.
Chapter
On March 21, 2014, in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, a select group of government officials, foreign diplomats, tourism executives, NGO representatives, and members of the media gathered in the ritzy InterContinental hotel for a conference titled ‘Promoting Ukraine’s Image and Tourism Potential.’ The event included a presentation, delivered by a joint team of public officials from the Ministry of Tourism and marketing experts from the private sector, which announced the launch of Ukraine’s new tourism ‘brand platform’ (‘Conference’, 2014).1 There would have been nothing too remarkable about this event had it not been for the fact that just a month earlier, on February 20, Kiev’s main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti — a ten-minute walk from the InterContinental — had seen an eruption of violence against anti-government protesters leading to the death of at least 88 people in 48 hours. Furthermore, a mere three days before the conference, on March 18, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin had signed a bill to absorb the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation after a controversial referendum had found that 9 7 per cent of Crimea’s residents wanted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia (‘Ukraine Crisis Timeline’, n.d.).
Book
Although diplomacy increasingly takes place in non-traditional, non-Western settings, public and academic debates still focus solely on the conference table, the ministerial office, and the press conference as sites of diplomatic practice. This book confronts the problem of diplomatic Euro-centrism head on, weighing potentially revolutionary changes such as increasing globalization and the rise of such powers as India, China, and Brazil. Iver Neumann, a Norwegian scholar with broad diplomatic experience, considers the potential of diplomatic sites that range from the dinner table to a host of culturally specific locations, in which today's third parties attempt to mediate conflict, facilitate peace, and manage aggressors and long-standing civil wars. Since the media plays a significant role in shaping the public's perception of diplomacy, Neumann surveys the representation of diplomacy in popular culture and concludes that, far from being in crisis, diplomatic activity is becoming more and more prevalent in an increasing number of unconventional locations. His study concludes that in today's globalized world, the art of diplomacy is thriving.
Article
Soft power is an increasingly important concept that attempts to explain how states and organisations shape shared interests across national borders and between political, economic, social and cultural spaces. However, many of the theoretical and methodological flaws identified by scholars engaging with the term are familiar to Media & Communications research, and particularly to the sub-field termed 'cultural imperialism' during the 1970s and 1980s. This article builds upon the insights of research that explores contemporary theoretical innovations upon the cultural imperialism field, and applies it to a case study of German soft power. The aim is to explore the usefulness of the 'spatio-temporal turn' as a way of interpreting the epistemological and ontological consequences of German soft power strategies. The study includes empirical material on the recent Land of Ideas and Year of Germany campaigns.
Article
Social power, defined as "the ability to set standards, create norms and values that are deemed legitimate and desirable, without resorting to coercion or payment", is a central part of contemporary international politics. This text introduces and defines the concept of social power and considers how it works in international politics. It demonstrates how social power is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in a wide variety of ways and circumstances, particularly in culture, institutions, law, and the media. Providing a global perspective on the role of social power from the EU, the US, the Middle East, and China, this book: Focuses on the key aspects of social power: centrality, complexity, and comprehensiveness. Examines the complex relationship between soft and hard power, the role of the media, and new communications technologies. Explores the interplay between state and non-state actors in framing the public discourse, setting the agenda, molding identities, and ultimately determining the outcome of policy processes. Features a broad range of international case studies and addresses issues including: culture and pop culture, media, public diplomacy, and branding. With particular focus on the social power of non-state actors, such as non-governmental organizations, the media, and consumers, Social Power in International Politics offers a thought-provoking new perspective on how power is exercised in the complex reality of the contemporary world. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of international relations, political science, and media and communications studies.
Article
This article applies recent critiques of branding and marketing to a case study of the nation branding trend. We argue that critical approaches to brand "co-creation"-a reliance upon consumers to build and disseminate brand identity-help illuminate the ways in which nation branding serves as a technique of governance in the era of global capitalism. The article first considers the recent development of nation branding as a global phenomenon and then explores the details of one such campaign in post-socialist Slovenia. The case study illustrates the ways in which nation branding enjoins the populace to "live" the national brand, and to promulgate it nationally and internationally in the name of taking responsibility for the homeland's economic development. The article concludes with a consideration of the way in which nation branding's framing of the state as an "enterprise" fits with the logic of emerging forms of so-called commercial nationalism.
Article
Development Communication and Public Diplomacy are twin products of U.S. political science and Cold War foreign policy. As contemporary diplomatic and development policies continue to converge, new ways of interpreting the relationship between the fields are necessary. This article analyses the 2 fields' emergence out of modernization policy and their reliance on a common conception of process: namely, that information propagated through media channels alters how foreign citizens know the world around them, and that this transformation can lead to positive social change. More recent paradigmatic shifts toward participatory communication models demonstrate that both fields have moved toward inclusive conceptualizations of influence and social change, but key differences suggest that they still have much to learn from each other.
Article
Article
Public diplomacy connotes a range of international programmes tasked with cultivating influence for nation-states. It is typically justified within the arguments that comprise the concept of â €' soft power'. Soft power, however, is a vague concept, arguably, which has been difficult to implicate as pivotal to foreign policy outcomes. Yet, despite its apparent shortcomings, the concept informs a variety of nation-state and international actors in their strategic formulations. States acting on soft power tenets via a diversity of policies suggest further attention is warranted to examine how soft power is adapted to the practice of public diplomacy among different nation-states. This article draws on Stefano Guzzini's 'performative conceptual analysis' to explore how a comparative analysis of public diplomacy can account for differing articulations of soft power, and the kinds of tools that leverage communicative and cultural resources toward expected gains. The goal is to render soft power as grounded in localised, practical understandings of strategic necessity through public diplomacy tools of statecraft. Soft power is presented as an assemblage of practical reasoning that informs linkages between strategic arguments about communication power and the practice of public diplomacy.
Book
With the publication of his best-selling books "Competitive Strategy (1980) and "Competitive Advantage (1985), Michael E. Porter of the Harvard Business School established himself as the world's leading authority on competitive advantage. Now, at a time when economic performance rather than military might will be the index of national strength, Porter builds on the seminal ideas of his earlier works to explore what makes a nation's firms and industries competitive in global markets and propels a whole nation's economy. In so doing, he presents a brilliant new paradigm which, in addition to its practical applications, may well supplant the 200-year-old concept of "comparative advantage" in economic analysis of international competitiveness. To write this important new work, Porter and his associates conducted in-country research in ten leading nations, closely studying the patterns of industry success as well as the company strategies and national policies that achieved it. The nations are Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The three leading industrial powers are included, as well as other nations intentionally varied in size, government policy toward industry, social philosophy, and geography. Porter's research identifies the fundamental determinants of national competitive advantage in an industry, and how they work together as a system. He explains the important phenomenon of "clustering," in which related groups of successful firms and industries emerge in one nation to gain leading positions in the world market. Among the over 100 industries examined are the German chemical and printing industries, Swisstextile equipment and pharmaceuticals, Swedish mining equipment and truck manufacturing, Italian fabric and home appliances, and American computer software and movies. Building on his theory of national advantage in industries and clusters, Porter identifies the stages of competitive development through which entire national economies advance and decline. Porter's finding are rich in implications for both firms and governments. He describes how a company can tap and extend its nation's advantages in international competition. He provides a blueprint for government policy to enhance national competitive advantage and also outlines the agendas in the years ahead for the nations studied. This is a work which will become the standard for all further discussions of global competition and the sources of the new wealth of nations.
Article
Throughout this century, modernists have been proclaiming that technology would transform world politics. These days futurists argue that the information revolution is leading to a new electronic feudalism, with overlapping communities laying claim to citizens' loyalties. But the state is very resilient. Geographically based states will continue to structure politics in an information age, but they will rely less on traditional resources and more on their ability to remain credible to a public with increasingly diverse sources of information.
Article
Throughout the twentieth century, most of the really successful international brands have come from countries that are successful brands in their own right, and substantial transfer of imagery and brand equity can often be seen to occur between the two. This paper proposes that a number of ‘emerging’ markets, and especially Brazil, have the potential to produce global brands, for the following reasons: because there is already high recognition of the brand-print of the country itself, which will consequently support the ‘rightness’ and acceptability of relevant commercial brands from that country; because the economic environment is increasingly favouring an export mentality; because certain groups of consumers in other emerging markets might eventually favour brands from emerging or ‘recently-emerged’ markets such as Brazil, in preference to ‘first-world’ nations like USA. The paper argues that exporting brands, as distinct from commodities, is part of a package of development which, together, can significantly accelerate the process of emergence from the third world. It also proposes that countries like Brazil have a real chance to join the first world ‘club’ of global brand producers in the twenty-first century.
Article
In recent commentaries on British foreign policy, the New Labour and coalition governments have been criticized for lacking strategic thinking. Academics describe a ‘strategy gap’ and note that old ideas about Britain's role in the world, such as Churchill's 1948 reference to ‘three circles’, continue to be recycled. Parliamentarians bemoan the ‘uncritical acceptance of these assumptions’ that has led to ‘a waning of our interests in, and ability to make, National Strategy’. This article argues that a primary problem has been the lack of consideration of how identity, strategy and action interrelate in foreign policy. Using the insights of role theory, the article seeks to address this by outlining six ideal-type role orientations that the UK might fulfil in world politics, namely: isolate, influential (rule of law state), regional partner, thought leader, opportunist–interventionist power and Great Power. By considering how variations in a state's disposition towards the external environment translate into different policy directions, the article aims both to highlight the range of roles available to policy-makers and to emphasize that policy often involves making a choice between them. Failure to recognize this has resulted in role conflicts and policy confusion. In setting out a variety of different role orientations, the author offers a route to introducing a genuine strategic sensibility to policy-making, one that links identity with policy goals and outcomes.
Article
British strategy-making has been subject to a sustained critique in recent years, from parliamentarians, retired members of the armed forces and scholars of strategic studies. This article examines the nature of this critique and the evolving character of strategic practice in Britain. It argues that the criticisms of British strategymaking are often misplaced, for two main reasons. First, many base their critique on a reductionist notion of unitary ‘national interest’ that fails to capture systemic patterns of complexity and contestation in the wider security environment and in Britain. Second, they underestimate or ignore the extent to which the UK strategic community is itself innovating in response to these themes, particularly since the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. This is not to argue that considerable challenges do not remain for strategy-making in Britain. Most notably, these include: how to translate strategic innovation in departments and elsewhere into a coherent national strategic agenda; how to do this while maintaining institutional coordination and a shared sense of strategic purpose across government (and beyond); how to sustain and consolidate institutional expertise and experience in a rapidly changing civil service and at a time of continuing public austerity; and how to articulate and legitimate security policy decisions among a general public that is both disengaged from elite strategic discourse and sceptical of the efficacy of military force. Even so, the article concludes by arguing that it is possible to see the outline of an emergent and distinctive theory of action in contemporary British strategic practice, characterized by principles of adaptivity, anticipation, self-organisation and nascent cross-governmentalism.
Article
Research Highlights and Abstract This article provides A ‘zeitgeist’ analysis of how the Coalition leadership tried to make the most of Britain's ‘big year’ of 2012, particularly in terms of the government's ‘prosperity agenda’; Rich empirical data about high profile, government-wide trends in British promotional strategies and practices in the context of austerity; Analysis of the consequences of these promotional activities from a number of perspectives, including: GREAT as an alternative to existing promotional structures; strategies for drawing upon national identity in support of economic growth; disciplining techniques for enforcing brand identity; approaches to co-branding corporate and governmental Britain; the metrics used to demonstrate impact. The GREAT campaign is one of the most ambitious national promotion efforts ever undertaken. Timed to make the most of Britain's raised profile during Olympic year, the aim was to promote trade, investment and tourism under a unified identity emphasising British achievements. However, the campaign raises a number of issues. The first is how and why GREAT emerged as an alternative to established structures for soft power, public diplomacy and marketing in the UK. The second is the ways GREAT engages with collective identity through the nationalisation and commodification of symbolic resources. Third is the practices used to include and exclude specific target groups and stakeholders. Fourth is the interaction between economic and symbolic resources, including public-private collaboration and the evidence used to determine impact and value. These themes contribute to an analysis of GREAT that will be of interest to scholars of politics and IR in the UK and internationally.
Article
The practice of 'branding' has invaded all aspects of public and private life. Increasingly, cities, regions and states are using the services of PR and branding consultants to strengthen their ties with so-called stakeholders, aiming to achieve economic and political benefits. This essay studies the intersection between the two worlds of PR and IR theory; two epistemic communities that have little real contact with each other, despite the fact that they share an interest in concepts such as globalisation, identity and the changing nature of power in international politics. This essay offers numerous concrete examples of the phenomenon of location branding to describe how and why territorial entities have decided to jump on the `brandwagon'. It relates the trend of location branding with some strands of constructivist thinking and explores the possible consequences for the study of nationalism and democracy. In this, it sketches the outlines of a potential new research agenda.
Article
Soft power is the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than coercion or payment. A country's soft power rests on its resources of culture, values, and policies. A smart power strategy combines hard and soft power resources. Public diplomacy has a long history as a means of promoting a country's soft power and was essential in winning the cold war. The current struggle against transnational terrorism is a struggle to win hearts and minds, and the current overreliance on hard power alone is not the path to success. Public diplomacy is an important tool in the arsenal of smart power, but smart public diplomacy requires an understanding of the roles of credibility, self-criticism, and civil society in generating soft power.
Article
This article critically examines the emergence of nation branding as a commercial practice at the end of the Cold War by conceptualizing it as a means for nations to redefine and reposition themselves within the master narrative of globalization. It examines the industry literature of the nation branding movement, which seeks to legitimate the practice. It argues that nation branding is an engine of neo-liberalism that explicitly embraces a reductive logic, which privileges market relations (market fundamentalism) in articulations of national identity; also contends that nation branding is a risky business that can backfire, since its success depends, in large part, on the intuitive knowledge of individual industry ‘creatives’. It maintains that the methodology of nation branding, qua methodology, is profoundly anti-democratic. It offers recommendations for making nation branding more transparent and accountable to democratic values, but also explores Umberto's concept of ‘semiotic guerrilla warfare’ as a possible strategy for disrupting nation branding and redirecting initiatives to rethink national identity in more democratic directions.
Article
This article examines the role of bilateral donors and conditional aid in Mozambique's successful post-war peace process. The literature on peacebuilding has tended to privilege the role of UN missions in explaining the outcomes of post-civil war peace processes. The important role that bilateral donors may play in determining these outcomes has not been thoroughly studied. In Mozambique, donors with country experience, knowledge of domestic political actors and constraints, and a shared commitment to a successful outcome, were indispensable to the success of the peace process. The article details this engagement, arguing that it was not UNOMOZ alone, but UNOMOZ as supported by the flexible responses of these donors, that provided an effective third-party guarantee of the peace agreement in Mozambique. It briefly discusses the broader implications of this finding for understanding international peacebuilding efforts.
Article
This paper analyzes optimal foreign aid policy in a neoclassical growth framework with a conflict of interest between the donor and the recipient government. Aid conditionality is modeled as a limited enforceable dynamic contract. We define the contract to be self-enforcing if, at any point in time, the conditions imposed on aid funds are supportable by the threat of a permanent aid cutoff from then onward. Quantitative results show that optimal self-enforcing conditional aid strongly stimulates the developing economy and substantially increases welfare. However, aid effectiveness comes at a high cost: to ensure enforceability, less benevolent political regimes receive permanently larger aid funds in return for a less intense conditionality.
Article
Including abstract, references. The Reduction of transaction costs is a commonly mentioned yet rarely elaborated goal for aid effectiveness in educational development. The casual use of the concept of transaction costs conceals which costs may be reduced, which costs are required and, indeed, what transaction costs actually are. Examining issues related to harmonizing the efforts of multiple donors in education development, this paper analyzes aid conditionality from a transaction-cost perspective. Using transaction-cost analysis, we expand on typical notions of policy conditionality to look at how organizational reforms may affect transaction costs and how aid contract relations may be influenced by conditionality.
Article
Ten of the 15 seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. We find that a country's U.S. aid increases by 59 percent and its U.N. aid by 8 percent when it rotates onto the council. This effect increases during years in which key diplomatic events take place (when members' votes should be especially valuable), and the timing of the effect closely tracks a country's election to, and exit from, the council. Finally, the U.N. results appear to be driven by UNICEF, an organization over which the United States has historically exerted great control.
Article
This paper evaluates aid by considering how effective aid has been in exerting leverage on policy choices. It is rather easy to demonstrate that if a country is unwilling to implement policy reforms, attaching conditions to aid will not ensure sustained reform. In this sense conditionality does not work. This ignores the fact that donors, through aid and conditions, can influence recipient policies. The argument of this paper is that if the analysis focuses on channels of influence, one can better identify ways to enhance aid effectiveness. Reform is a slow and difficult process and donors would be more effective 'development partners' if they see their role as being to support rather than force this process. In simple terms, donors should provide the information and technical assistance to help governments to make policy choices, rather than dictating choices by imposing conditions. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.
Article
The paper examines the effect of aid on "poverty", rather than on economic growth. We devise a 'pro-poor (public) expenditure index', and present evidence that, together with inequality and corruption, this is a key determinant of the aid's poverty leverage. After presenting empirical evidence which suggests a positive leverage of aid donors on pro-poor expenditure, we argue for the development of conditionality in a new form, which gives greater flexibility to donors in punishing slippage on previous commitments, and keys aid disbursements to performance in respect of policy variables which governments can influence in a pro-poor direction. Copyright 2004 Royal Economic Society.
Public Diplomacy and Aid to a Region in Transition: State Sponsored Academic Exchange between Sweden and Eastern Europe
  • Andreas Åkerlund
Who Can Play This Game? The Rise of Nation Branding in Bulgaria
  • Nadia Kaneva