The aim of this thesis is to discuss the concepts of public diplomacy and nation branding, find the link between them, and examine their effect on the economic development in Estonia. This thesis provides a thorough overview of relevant liter- ature on NB and PD. To dive into the practical part of nation branding it discusses the case of globally accepted, effective NB initiatives of Singapore. Moreover, it discusses Estonian's NB campaigns and four main instruments of PD and con- ducts economic analysis to examine the effects of NB and PD in Estonian economy from building credibility and international awareness points of view. To make the economic analysis more valuable and visually comprehensible, all discussed mi- croeconomic and macroeconomic indicators are captured for all three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Both qualitative and quantitative methodolo- gies are used to answer the research question and hypotheses. The study found that NB and PD in Estonia positively affect the reaffirmation of national identity, facilitate business development, and increase international visibility which in turn ensures economic development in the country. Even though various other play- ers and factors are involved in the process of economic development, effectively designed NP and PD could...

The purpose of this thesis is to highlight the multi-component conception of the power in the international relations. The military and material power is not a sufficient element in order to apply the influence in the contemporary international political environment. It will point out the reality that in the international relations there are situated the political approaches that lead to the opportunity to be perceived in a positive way by other actors within the international relations. The final impact of these activities is to reach the convenient political environment in order to apply the own political interests and preferences of the state. This opportunity is fulfilled by the wielding of "soft power" and by, for these objectives defined, instruments. The aim of this thesis is to take hold of the one of the most complex instrument that is used for the intentions that were mentioned above. It is the public and cultural diplomacy. "Soft power" and its instrument in the form of public and cultural diplomacy is researched in an objective way in the case of the Czech Republic.

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yes / This article highlights and analyses a hitherto largely neglected dimension to the growing agency of large developing countries in global affairs: their hosting of international sports mega-events. Why are large developing countries hosting sports mega-events and what does this contemporary phenomenon tell us about the significance of, for example, the Olympics and the World Cup in global affairs? We explore these questions through brief examination of the cases of the three most active sports mega-event hosting states in recent times: Brazil, China and South Africa. The 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil provide interesting examples with which to explore developing country agency in the international system and in particular the discursive basis of that agency. We see the hosting of sports mega-events as the practice of public diplomacy by states to both demonstrate existing soft power capability as well as pursue its further enhancement.

論文的目的是想要了解羅馬尼亞自2007年成為歐盟成員後，在公共外交面對的主要挑戰。作者試圖從2007年以後，找出羅馬尼亞公共外交元素，理解該國在建立國家品牌的努力。 　　共產主義解體之後，羅馬尼亞不能夠建立自己的認同，無力面對歐洲聯盟的高期望。這兩個情況共同導致羅馬尼亞2007年之前的困境，加入歐盟之後這個困境更甚。看歐洲的環境及挑戰，羅馬尼亞爲克服挑戰努力以赴，但步履艱辛。 本論文參考資料主要是二手資料（例如：參考書，研究論文，報告，期刊文章等），但作者自信這些資料價值不容懷疑。 / The purpose of this thesis is to gain understanding of the main challenges of public diplomacy in the case of Romania after the 2007 European Union membership acceptance. The situation that presents itself after 2007 was only looked at in correlation to the country’s past attempts to create a national brand that includes elements of public diplomacy. Not being able to create an identity after the fall of communism and high expectations from the European community, together create the situation in which Romania finds itself not only before 2007 but more visible after the European Union membership. Looking at the European context and examples of the connectivity between challenges a set of possible recommendations are constructed to overcome the challenges. Both challenges are present before and after 2007 but once the European Union membership was granted they became even more visible. The information is based on secondary sources (e.g. reference books, research papers, reports, journals’ articles, etc.) from organizations, publishers, universities, research institutes, media outlets, individuals, etc.

Pendant plus de quarante cinq ans l’atout maître de la diplomatie publique américaine a été l’Agence d’information des Etats-Unis (l’USIA, United States Information Agency), établie en 1953 à l’apogée de la guerre froide pour répondre à la propagande soviétique anti-américaine et coordonner les programmes culturels et d’information à l’étranger. En privilégiant une approche comparative, notre thèse se propose d’apporter un éclairage sur le rôle longtemps ignoré de la diplomatie publique au sein de la machine de la politique étrangère américaine en se concentrant sur trois Administrations présidentielles, Eisenhower, Kennedy et Reagan qui se distinguent comme des périodes charnières. Dans ce cadre, notre étude tente de déterminer le rôle qu’ont pu jouer les stratégies de la diplomatie publique américaine élaborées depuis Washington telles qu’elles furent pratiquées par les agents des services d’information (USIS) dans les pays de « la zone cruciale » (France, Italie et Allemagne) en Europe de l’Ouest, ou dans les nations captives. Notre thèse démontre que des premières campagnes de propagande des combattants de la guerre psychologique, dans les années 1950, aux émissions high-tech des champions de l’information et de la désinformation des années 1980, l’USIA fut au cœur des stratégies de persuasion de la puissance américaine en Europe. Au regard des succès et des échecs des activités officielles et officieuses pour lesquelles l’USIA a œuvré, nous abordons la délicate question de la réception des programmes d’information officiels et de l’efficacité des stratégies d’influence américaines dans les batailles européennes pour la liberté. / For 46 years, the centrepiece of U.S. public diplomacy was the United States Information Agency (USIA) established in 1953 at the height of the Cold War to counter anti-American propaganda from the Soviet Union and coordinate foreign information dissemination programs. The purpose of my dissertation - a comparative study - is to try to shed a new light on the too long neglected role of public diplomacy in the American foreign policy process over the course of three key presidential Administrations- Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan. Therefore in the course of my dissertation, through field centered case studies, I investigate the strategies set up by the USIA in Washington and by the USIS [United States Information Services] in the field for “the crucial zone” (defined as France, Italy and Germany), and for key “captive nations” (such as Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary). In my dissertation I argue that since the first propag! anda campaigns of the cold warriors to the high-tech broadcastings of the champions of information and disinformation, USIA was at the core of the American strategies of persuasion and power in Europe. Indeed, in the field, between 1953 and 1991 the psychological warfare between the US and the USSR turned into a cultural Cold War and a war of information in which both public and private networks were involved. Considering the success and failures of the covert and overt activities of the USIA I may tackle the tricky issue of the effectiveness of American strategies of influence in the European battle for freedom.

<p><strong>Purpose/Aim: </strong>The purpose of this paper is to describe how a number of strategically selected employees at the Swedish Institute, with the purpose to promote Sweden in the world, look at the challenges facing Sweden concerning nation branding in the new era of cooperation within the European Union. I examine how these people look upon the work of public diplomacy and nation branding in order to actively participate and influence the EU's common communications platform.</p><p><strong>Material/Method: </strong>The method used in this thesis is qualitative interviews. The reason why I chose this method is because I consider it to be the most appropriate in order to collect information about how these selected employees at the Swedish institute regard the challenges that lay ahead in terms of nation branding within the European Union.</p><p><strong>Main results: </strong>On the basis of the results I have gained by dint of the analysis, it can be concluded that it is of utmost importance to take the societal changes, which are a result both of the worldwide globalization and the EU cooperation, into consideration when designing a future communication strategy for the Swedish Institute. The nation-state continues to play an important role in Sweden, but its importance is declining as the EU cooperation is progressing. The citizens’ identity plays a crucial role in designing a nation’s communications strategy, and from the analysis I conclude that we move not from a Swedish to a European identity, but towards a pluralistic union where multiple identities meet under one umbrella; the EU.</p>

This thesis, as part of the one-year Master Programme in Social Science with specialization in Digital media, has taken up the concepts of nation branding and new public diplomacy and examined them from the perspective of the role that new, digital or even innovative – as some may call them – media play within them. It consists of five (5) chapters and is a little less than sixty (60) pages long. The concepts and fields above  are usually confused with each other, as people tend to use the one notion for naming the other and vice versa. However, what is common in those two fields is the involvement of new media, such as social media platforms or platforms that enable crowdsourcing activities. Especially, within the past few decades that the internet has invaded the most into the lifestyle of a large segment of this planet, it seems as things, thoughts, ideas and actions are driven by or with the internet. Thus, with the opportunity of this thesis, I wanted to examine the role that new media play when it comes to talking about nation branding or new public diplomacy acts. This work has attempted to achieve that by focusing on a recently run initiative in Greece, called “Up Greek Tourism”. The initiative’s goal was to promote Greek tourism abroad, in an attempt to help Greece from within. A group of Greek people formulated the group and intended to gather the money through a crowdsourcing platform, in order to advertise Greek tourism abroad. What I actually tried to do is investigate the way they handled their channels of communication and the reason they chose internet as being central to their communicational policy. My idea was to do that by discursively analyzing a TEDx talk of the initiator, conducting a semiotic analysis on the images they used in their advertisements and by a short content analysis from the early stages of their Facebook page, through which it became known. Last but not least, I tried to verify the results by using their own answers from an open-end questionnaire they answered for me.

Darbe siekiama išanalizuoti Lietuvos kariuomenės atstovų, dalyvaujančių tarptautinėse taikos rėmimo operacijose, vykdomos viešosios diplomatijos įtaką kuriamam valstybės vidaus įvaizdžiui. Pastaroji tema iškelia problemą, reikalaujančią ištirti, ar dėmesys viešajai diplomatijai yra pakankamas, atsižvelgiant į jos nešamą naudą įvaizdžio formavimo procese. Siekiant tikslingos ir konkrečios analizės, apibrėžiamos darbo ribos – darbe neanalizuojamos visos taikos rėmimo operacijos, kuriose dalyvauja Lietuvos atstovai, o orientuojamasi tik į NATO vykdomas tarptautines operacijas, kuriose tarnauja Lietuvos kariai, t.y. Afganistanas, Irakas bei Kosovas, į kurį 2009-aisiais metais buvo nusiųstas paskutinis Lietuvos karių būrys ir Lietuvos misija šiame krašte šiuo metu jau yra baigta, tačiau dalyvavimas joje neabejotinai turėjo įtakos Lietuvos įvaizdžiui. Ieškant atsakymo pateikiama viešosios diplomatijos samprata, išskiriant svarbiausias dimensijas ir įrankius, analizuojama viešosios diplomatijos įtaka formuojant ne tik šalies išorinį, bet ir vidinį įvaizdį, atskleidžiama, kaip Lietuvos kariuomenės atstovų dalyvavimas tarptautinėse taikos palaikymo operacijose prisideda prie valstybės įvaizdžio formavimo. Atlikus apklausų duomenų palyginimus bei rezultatų analizę išaiškėjo, kad visuomenė pasitiki Lietuvos kariuomenės institucija bei remia šalies narystę NATO. Ir nors mato iškylančius neigiamus dalyvavimo taikos rėmimo operacijose aspektus, t.y. padidėjusias valstybės biudžeto... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The main objective of this study is to analyze how public diplomacy implemented in peacekeeping operations by the Lithuanian army representatives influences country’s image. The subject gives a rise to a problem which needs a deeper analysis: it is vital to find out if attention drawn to public diplomacy by the state officials is sufficient, to consider the benefit it brings to the image formation process. In pursuance of purposeful analysis it is necessary to define the limits of the research – this study does not analyze all peacekeeping operations but focuses only on the NATO-led international operations in which Lithuanian soldiers are employed, i.e. the operations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. The Kosovo operation is already finished for us as the last squad was sent on 2009, but the participation in this mission still has an influence to Lithuania’s image. This study presents the conception of public diplomacy, characterizes its main dimensions and instruments, analyzes the influence of public diplomacy on shaping an external and internal country image and reveals how the participation of Lithuanian army representatives in international peacekeeping operations contributes to the image of the state. The survey data comparisons and analysis of the results showed a public confidence in Lithuanian Armed Forces and support to country's membership in NATO. Although citizens witness the negative aspects of partaking in peacekeeping operations, i.e. an increase in... [to full text]