In my thesis I will compare the public diplomacy and national branding of the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The goal of the thesis is to define, explore and evaluate these fields for both countries. This paper will focus on identifying different aspects of nation branding in these two countries and will aim to evaluate the strategy and sketch the recommendations. The thesis is divided into 3 parts. In the first part the author defines and describes public diplomacy as general term. The second part is dedicated to the public diplomacy of small and medium states. The last chapter focuses on the comparison of public diplomacy and nation branding of the Czech Republic and lesson that could be learned from Switzerland. The goals of this chapter are as follows. To compare aspects and specifics of these two states and evaluate specific activities developed by governments to improve the perception of their country by the foreign public.

Após os atentados terroristas de Onze de setembro de 2001 os Estados Falidos passaram a ser considerados uma das principais ameaças à paz e segurança internacional. A maior parte dos estudos sobre o tema argumenta que a melhor maneira para se lidar com esta ameaça são as chamadas operações de Nation-Building, lideradas por agentes externos e cujos objetivos principais são reconstruir as instituições políticas, promover eleições democráticas e consolidar uma economia de mercado no país alvo. Assim sendo, na primeira parte do trabalho, intitulada O Colapso, esta dissertação almeja analisar as características do conceito de Estado Falido à luz do caso do Afeganistão. Na segunda parte, intitulada A Reconstrução, ambicionamos entender o que são e como são levadas a cabo as operações de Nation- Building, analisando as missões lideradas pela ONU e pelos EUA e realizando um estudo da atual operação no Afeganistão. / After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, Failed States have been considered one of the greatest threats to peace and international security. The great majority of the studies about this theme argue that one of the best ways to cope with this threat are the so-called Nation-Building operations, leaded by external agents and whose main objectives are the reconstruction of political institutions, the promotion of elections and the consolidation of a marketoriented economy in the target country. Therefore, in the first part of this work, called The Collapse, this dissertation aims to analyze the characteristics of the Failed State concept through the Afghan case. In the second part, called The Reconstruction, we intend to understand what Nation-Building operations are and how they have been carried out, analyzing the missions leaded both by the UN and the United States and doing a case study over the current operation in Afghanistan.

L’Algérie a opté, depuis l’indépendance, en 1962, pour une organisationdécentralisée de l’État. Les quatre constitutions, qu’a connues le pays, ont toutesreconnu ce mode d’organisation, en laissant le soin d’en définir la teneur auparlement, constitué d’une seule chambre jusqu’en 1996, date de l’institution de laseconde chambre, dénommé ‘Conseil de la Nation’. Dès lors, les débats politiques etdoctrinaux, portant sur les fondements et l’utilité de cette chambre, se sont multipliés.Cette recherche tente de déceler un lien direct et déterminant entre un certain degréd’autonomie des collectivités locales et les fondements du Conseil de la Nation, enAlgérie.La démarche choisie s’appuie sur l’interaction des éléments structurels etfonctionnels des collectivités locales et du pouvoir central, depuis l’indépendance, en1962, jusqu’à la révision constitutionnelle la plus récente, en janvier 2016. Larecherche tient compte du contexte propre à l’Algérie, mais aussi des traditionsinspiratrices, sans négliger la comparaison avec les autres expériences qui se sontdéveloppées dans des circonstances similaires afin de mieux percevoir lesspécificités du contexte algérien.Le long de la recherche, on essaie de savoir si l’institution du Conseil de la Nationrelève d’un mimétisme constitutionnel ou peut-elle s’inscrire dans un processussincère de transition démocratique. / Since its independence in 1962, Algeria has opted for a decentralized organization ofthe state. The four constitutions of Algeria have all recognized this mode oforganization, leaving the task of defining its content to the parliament, composed ofone chamber, till 1996, when a second chamber, the ‘Council of the Nation’, wasinstituted. Since then, political and doctrinal debates on the foundations andusefulness of this parliamentary chamber have multiplied.This research tries to find a direct and determinant link between a degree ofautonomy of the local collectivities and the foundations of the Council of the Nation.The chosen approach is based on the interaction of structural and functionalelements of local collectivities and the central government from the independenceuntil now. In order to better perceive the particularities of the Algerian context, theresearch has taken into account the inspiring traditions as well as other experiencesthat have developed in similar circumstances.Along the research, we try to find out whether the institution of the Council of theNation is just a constitutional mimesis or can it be part of a genuine process ofdemocratic transition.

Le progressisme est un courant politique né en Équateur dans les années 1860 cherchant à incarner une voie médiane entre le conservatisme et le libéralisme. Une fois au pouvoir, de 1883 à 1895, les progressistes entendent moderniser l’Équateur sur le plan politique et économique. Sur le plan économique, ils cherchent à consolider le modèle agro-exportateur fondé sur le cacao, développer l’enseignement technique et scientifique, construire des voies ferrées et redéfinir les relations entre l’Église et l’État. Ils souhaitent également stabiliser les institutions républicaines, fondées sur le respect des libertés publiques, la séparation des pouvoirs et le suffrage comme source de la légitimité politique. Cependant, les progressistes doivent affronter l’opposition des conservateurs et des libéraux. Isolé et affaibli, le progressisme est renversé en 1895 par les libéraux. Malgré ses échecs, le progressisme représente une étape déterminante dans la construction de l’État-nation en Équateur. / Progressivism was a political movement born in Ecuador in 1860s that aimed at embodying a third way between conservatism and liberalism. While they were in power, from 1883 to 1895, the progressives tried to modernize Ecuador both politically and economically. On the economic level, they sought to consolidate the agroexport model, develop technical and scientific education, build railroads and redefine the relationship between Church and State. They also wanted to stabilize the republican institutions, based on the respect for civil liberties, separation of powers and suffrage as the source of political legitimacy. In spite of its failures, progressivism represents a fundamental step in the formation of the Nation state in Ecuador.

La compétitivité est aujourd’hui un concept central dans le discours public. Les nations doivent être compétitives au même titre que des entreprises. Pourtant, l’utilisation incessante de la notion de compétitivité à propos de territoires n’a suscité aucun ouvrage spécifique de la part de la géographie. En dépit d’une documentation pléthorique sur ce thème (rapports officiels, rankings, débats entre économistes), l’approche géographique est restée tout à fait marginale. Il convient donc de combler ce vide en procédant à une étude spatialisée du concept de compétitivité : c’est l’objet de cette thèse de doctorat, qui s’inscrit dans les champs de la géographie économique (étude des flux de richesses, formes spatiales de la mondialisation) et de l’aménagement (politiques publiques et discours officiels liés aux territoires). Ce travail de recherche suit trois axes principaux : Quels enseignements peut-on tirer des innombrables travaux consacrés à ce thème depuis 30 ans ? L’étude critique des documents les plus importants permet de comprendre les fondements théoriques et les limites du concept de compétitivité appliqué à des nations. Une telle synthèse souligne que cette notion, souvent mal définie, est éminemment politique. Comment mesurer et cartographier la compétitivité nationale dans l’espace mondial ? Construites à partir d’indices préexistants (comme celui du Forum économique mondial) et d’outils nouveaux, les cartes démontrent la complexité d’une évaluation de la performance dans un contexte concurrentiel. La compétitivité comporte plusieurs facettes qui entraînent des représentations variées. Enfin, ce travail de recherche est une relecture critique et territorialisée des politiques de compétitivité. Il constitue un document d’aide à la décision en matière de développement, en replaçant la territorialité au coeur de la réflexion. Cette contribution originale tente de clarifier certains aspects du processus de mondialisation, dans une époque marquée par l’instabilité. / Competitiveness is now a central concept in public discourse. Nations must be competitive as well as businesses. However, constant use of the concept of competitiveness about territories has not to date elicited any specific geographical analysis. Despite a plethora of literature on this topic (official reports, rankings and debates among economists), geographical studies remain quite limited. It is therefore necessary to bridge this gap by conducting a spatial study about the concept of competitiveness : this is the subject of this thesis, which fits in the fields of economic geography (the study offlows of wealth, spatial forms of globalization) and territorial planning (public policies and official statements relating to the territories). This research follows three main lines : First, what lessons can be learned from the existing literature on this subject which has amassed over the past 30 years ? A critical study of the most important documents is thus undertaken to facilitate an understanding of the theoretical foundations and limitations of the competitiveness concept applied to nations. Such a review highlights that the notion of territorial competitiveness, often poorly defined, is highly political. Second, how can national competitiveness be measured and mapped ? Constructed from existing indexes (such as that of the World Economic Forum) and new tools, the maps demonstrate the complexity of performance evaluation in a competitive environment. Competitiveness has many facets that bring about various representations. Finally, This research is a critical and territorialised review of the competitiveness policies. It is a document intended to support development decisions and to place issues of territory at the heart of discussions. This original contribution attempts to clarify some aspects of the globalization process, in an era marked by instability.

Au croisement de l’anthropologie sociale et des arts du spectacle, cette thèse est consacrée à la transmission dans les danses mongoles en Mongolie contemporaine. En abordant l’étude de la performance dansée sous l’angle de la transmission, l’objectif principal de ce travail est de comprendre le rôle des danses dans l’engendrement d’un sentiment d’appartenance national. Dans cette perspective, la Mongolie constitue un terrain d’investigation particulièrement fécond. D’une part le bii bielgee, danse des Oirad (Mongols de l’ouest), inscrit au Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel de l’UNESCO, est intimement associé, par ses évocations mimées, au mode de vie pastoral nomade. D’autre part, la « danse mongole scénique », qui en constitue la version professionnelle, donne à ces représentations stéréotypées une légitimité nationale et internationale. Mon analyse des gestes dansés ainsi que mon enquête sur les institutions, les réseaux et les pratiques de transmission et de performance montrent que l’efficacité des danses mongoles repose moins sur les représentations qu’elles véhiculent que sur les conditions relationnelles de leur performance. Les apprentissages formels et informels que j’ai observés, et auxquels j’ai parfois pu participer, visent moins la formation physique des danseurs que la sélection et la légitimation graduelle de ceux d’entre eux qui font montre d’un « talent » (av’yaas) remarquable à se produire en public. Au cœur des processus de transmission se trouve ainsi la distinction entre danseurs et non-danseurs. Capable, par son art de la performance, de susciter des modalités de participation spécifiques chez les spectateurs, le danseur apparaît alors comme un spécialiste quasi-rituel. Délégué du groupe dont il est l’émanation légitime, il déploie ainsi dans le même acte performatif la mise en danse de la culture mongole et la légitimation de celle-ci comme un des fondements de la « mongolité ». / Drawing on both social anthropology and performing arts, this thesis deals with the transmission of Mongolian dances in contemporary Mongolia. By studying danced performance from the perspective of transmission, the main purpose of this work is to understand the role dance plays in building up feelings of national belonging. In this regard, Mongolia provides a particularly fruitful field of study. On the one hand, biy biyelgee, the traditional dance of the Oirats (Western Mongols), included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, is closely linked to the nomadic pastoral lifestyle by virtue of the mimed gestures it incorporates. On the other hand, what may be called ‘scenic Mongolian dance’, the professionalized version of biy biyelgee, confers national and international legitimacy on these stereotyped representations. My fieldwork study of the institutions, networks and practices underlying the transmission and performance of Mongolian dances shows that their efficacy stems less from the representations they convey than from the relational conditions of their performance. The formal and informal dance training I was able to observe, and sometimes take part in, is oriented less towards the instilling techniques than towards the selection and gradual legitimization of those who exhibit an outstanding ‘talent’ (av’yaas) for performing in public. Indeed, the distinction between dancers and non-dancers lies at the heart of the process of transmission. The dancer, on the strength of his performative abilities, is able to elicit specific modes of participation from the audience, making him/her into a quasi-ritual specialist. As the legitimate emanation of the group which he/she publicly represents, the dancer, in the same performative act, both embodies Mongolian culture through dance and establishes it as a constitutive element of “mongolness”.

À la fin du XIXe siècle, le royaume éthiopien a étendu ses frontières vers l'est, l'ouest et le sud. Ce processus a renforcé l'hétérogénéité du royaume. Le Wolaita a été conquis en 1894. À partir de 1941, l'accélération de la centralisation par l'empereur Haylä Sellasé s'est accompagnée d'une volonté d'homogénéisation culturelle. Le système scolaire national était l'instrument emblématique de cette politique ; il devait diffuser la langue amharique et les valeurs du nord chrétien orthodoxe. Les premières personnes du Wolaita entrées à l'école, dans les années 1940, ont été les enfants des colons venus du nord et des Wolaita assimilés au nouveau pouvoir. Dans les années 1960, les jeunes des campagnes marginalisées récemment converties au protestantisme ont investi l'école, bien décidés à se faire une place dans la nation grâce à l'éducation. Mais leur volonté d'être à la fois éthiopiens et protestants se heurtait à l'idéologie officielle. Le régime du Därg (1974-1991) a élargi les critères d'appartenance à la nation en cherchant à fonder un nationalisme séculier exempt de discriminations culturelles et religieuses, tout en œuvrant à étendre l'éducation à l'ensemble de la population. Ceci a entraîné l'adhésion active des Wolaita éduqués. En dépit de la désaffection massive à l'égard du régime, à la fin des années 1980, due aux désastres économiques et à la violence politique, le Wolaita était résolument devenu éthiopien. Cinquante ans d'histoire des dynamiques scolaires montrent comment les acteurs locaux ont créé, dans la convergence et la négociation des identités wolaita et éthiopienne, de nouvelles formes d'appartenance à la communauté politique nationale. / At the end of the nineteenth century, Ethiopia expanded its borders to the east, west and south. This process increased the heterogeneity of the kingdom. Wolaita was conquered in 1894. From 1941, Emperor Hayla Sellasé's commitment to centralization came with the objective of cultural homogenization. The national school system was the focus of this policy; it had to spread Amharic language and the values of the Orthodox Christian north. In the 1940s, the first to enter school in Wolaita were the children of northern settlers and Wolaita incorporated to the new polity. In the 1960s, young people from rural areas, recently converted to Protestantism, entered school, determined to take their place in the nation through education. But their willingness to be both Ethiopian and Protestants clashed with official ideology. The Darg's regime (1974-1991) broadened the criteria for national belonging seeking to establish a secular nationalism divorced from cultural and religious discriminations, while working to extend education to the entire population. This has entailed the active support of educated Wolaita. Despite the massive disaffection with the regime in the late 1980s, due to economic disasters and political violence, Wolaita definitely became Ethiopian. Fifty years of dynamics of schooling reveals how local actors, negotiating with Ethiopian and Wolaita identities, created new forms of belonging to the national political community.

<p>Problem:</p><p>Which of Thailand’s four main sectors that nation brands compete including tourism, FDI, export promotion, and talent attraction that should be develop a main focus in developing a stronger Nation Brand for the country comparing to other four countries in South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines?</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose of this paper are 1) to study and analyze the current status of Thailand’s nation brand equity and 2) to examine the feasibility in each of Thailand’s four main sectors that nation brands compete including tourism, FDI, export promotion, and talent attraction by comparing to other four countries in ASEAN including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia in order to generate recommendations for the country in developing a stronger nation branding strategy in the future.</p><p>Method:</p><p>In order to achieve our purpose, firstly, we chose ‘Asset-based Nation brand equity’ model to collect the information and perform analysis on the contribution of both nation internal and external assets towards nation brand equity. Secondly, ‘Nation brand internal analysis’ model was chosen in order to be a guideline for gathering data and performing analysis on Thailand’s nation brand capability in each of the 4 main sectors comparing to the other four countries. In addition, due to our research topic and limited time frame, we would rely on secondary sources as our main source of information with some guidance from our primary source. After the analysis had been performed, we had reached the conclusion and generated recommendation for our target group</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>For the analysis of Nation brand equity, Thailand has equipped relatively strong internal assets both innate and nurtured as the country is rich with beautiful landscape and fascinating culture together with a strong support for the art from both governmental and private sectors. However, as for external assets, both disseminated and vicarious assets of Thailand still weakly contribute to the strength of the nation equity. Due to these reasons, we have recommended Thai governmental units to set up the organizations to improve the quality of disseminated asset and also start cooperation with private sector in order to come up with external portrayal in popular culture that can effective represent and enhance the country’s image.</p><p>As for the result of ‘Nation brand internal analysis’, Thailand has shown moderate to high capability in the Export Promotion sector which was the highest among the other 3 sectors. However, based on the data in the analysis part, there are still lots of things needed to be done both by Thai governmental units and private sector in order to boost the country’s nation brand capability to achieve competitive advantage in the international market in the long run. According to this point, we had listed some recommendations for the governmental units to use as a general guideline in obtaining a strong nation brand that could help the country become more competitive in the global market.</p>

In this thesis, I want to outline the emergence of the Australian national identity in colonial Australia. National identity is not a politically determined construct but culturally produced through discourse on literary works by female and male writers. The emergence of the dominant bushman myth exhibited enormous strength and influence on subsequent generations and infused the notion of “Australianness” with exclusively male characteristics. It provided a unique geographical space, the bush, on and against which the colonial subject could model his identity. Its dominance rendered non-male and non-bush experiences of Australia as “un-Australian.” I will present a variety of contemporary voices – postcolonial, Aboriginal, feminist, cultural critics – which see the Australian identity as a prominent topic, not only in the academia but also in everyday culture and politics. Although positioned in different disciplines and influenced by varying histories, these voices share a similar view on Australian society: Australia is a plural society, it is home to millions of different people – women, men, and children, Aboriginal Australians and immigrants, newly arrived and descendents of the first settlers – with millions of different identities which make up one nation. One version of national identity does not account for the multitude of experiences; one version, if applied strictly, renders some voices unheard and oppressed. After exemplifying how the literature of the 1890s and its subsequent criticism constructed the itinerant worker as “the” Australian, literary productions by women will be singled out to counteract the dominant version by presenting different opinions on the state of colonial Australia. The writers Louisa Lawson, Barbara Baynton, and Tasma are discussed with regard to their assessment of their mother country. These women did not only present a different picture, they were also gifted writers and lived the ideal of the “New Women:” they obtained divorces, remarried, were politically active, worked for their living and led independent lives. They paved the way for many Australian women to come. In their literary works they allowed for a dual approach to the bush and the Australian nation. Louisa Lawson credited the bushwoman with heroic traits and described the bush as both cruel and full of opportunities not known to women in England. She understood women’s position in Australian society as oppressed and tried to change politics and culture through the writings in her feminist magazine the Dawn and her courageous campaign for women suffrage. Barbara Baynton painted a gloomy picture of the Australian bush and its inhabitants and offered one of the fiercest critiques of bush society. Although the woman is presented as the able and resourceful bushperson, she does not manage to survive in an environment which functions on male rules and only values the economic potential of the individual. Finally, Tasma does not present as outright a critique as Barbara Baynton, however, she also attests the colonies a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England. Tasma attests that the colonies had a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England and demonstrates how uncertainties and irritations emerged in the course of Australia’s nation formation. These three women, as writers, commentators, and political activists, faced exclusion from the dominant literary discourses. Their assessment of colonial society remained unheard for a long time. Now, after much academic excavation, these voices speak to us from the past and remind us that people are diverse, thus nation is diverse. Dominant power structures, the institutions and individuals who decide who can contribute to the discourse on nation, have to be questioned and reassessed, for they mute voices which contribute to a wider, to the “full”, and maybe “real” picture of society. / Das heutige Australien ist eine heterogene Gesellschaft, welche sich mit dem Vermächtnis der Vergangenheit – der Auslöschung und Unterdrückung der Ureinwohner – aber auch mit andauernden Immigrationswellen beschäftigen muss. Aktuelle Stimmen in den australischen Literatur-, Kultur- und Geschichtswissenschaften betonen die Prominenz der Identitätsdebatte und weisen auf die Notwendigkeit einer aufgeschlossenen und einschließenden Herangehensweise an das Thema. Vor diesem Hintergrund erinnern uns die Stimmen der drei in dieser Arbeit behandelten Schriftstellerinnen daran, dass es nicht nur eine Version von nationaler Identität gibt. Die Pluralität einer Gesellschaft spiegelt sich in ihren Texten wieder, dies war der Fall im neunzehnten Jahrhundert und ist es heute noch. So befasst sich die vorliegende Arbeit mit der Entstehung nationaler Identität im Australien des späten neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Es wird von der Prämisse ausgegangen, dass nationale Identität nicht durch politische Entscheidungen determiniert wird, sondern ein kulturelles Konstrukt, basierend auf textlichen Diskurs, darstellt. Dieser ist nicht einheitlich, sondern mannigfaltig, spiegelt somit verschiedene Auffassungen unterschiedlicher Urheber über nationale Identität wider. Ziel der Arbeit ist es anhand der Texte australischer Schriftstellerinnen aufzuzeigen, dass neben einer dominanten Version der australischen Identität, divergierende Versionen existierten, die eine flexiblere Einschätzung des australischen Charakters erlaubt, einen größeren Personenkreis in den Rang des „Australiers“ zugelassen und die dominante Version hinterfragt hätten. Die Zeitschrift Bulletin wurde in den 1890ern als Sprachrohr der radikalen Nationalisten etabliert. Diese forderten eine Loslösung der australischen Kolonien von deren Mutterland England und riefen dazu auf, Australien durch australische Augen zu beschreiben. Dem Aufruf folgten Schriftsteller, Maler und Künstler und konzentrierten ihren Blick auf die für sie typische australische Landschaft, den „Busch“. Schriftsteller, allen voran Henry Lawson, glorifizierten die Landschaft und ihre Bewohner; Pioniere und Siedler wurden zu Nationalhelden stilisiert. Der australische „bushman“ - unabhängig, kumpelhaft und losgelöst von häuslichen und familiären Verpflichtungen - wurde zum „typischen“ Australier. Die australische Nation wurde mit männlichen Charaktereigenschaften assoziiert und es entstand eine Version der zukünftigen Nation, die Frauen und die Australischen Ureinwohner als Nicht-Australisch propagierte, somit von dem Prozess der Nationsbildung ausschloss. Nichtsdestotrotz verfassten australische Schriftstellerinnen Essays, Romane und Kurzgeschichten, die alternative Versionen zur vorherrschenden und zukünftigen australischen Nation anboten. In dieser Arbeit finden Louisa Lawson, Barbara Baynton und Tasma Beachtung. Letztere ignoriert den australischen Busch und bietet einen Einblick in den urbanen Kosmos einer sich konsolidierenden Nation, die, obwohl tausende Meilen von ihrem Mutterland entfernt, nach Anerkennung und Vergleich mit diesem durstet. Lawson und Baynton, hingegen, präsentieren den Busch als einen rechtlosen Raum, der vor allem unter seinen weiblichen Bewohnern emotionale und physische Opfer fordert.

The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. First, the discussion seeks to understand the concepts of nationalism and patriotism and how they relate to one another. In respect to the more critical literature concerning nationalism, it asks whether these two concepts are as different as is sometimes assumed. Furthermore, by problematizing nation-branding as an “updated” form of nationalism, it seeks to understand whether we are facing the possible emergence of a new type of nationalism. Second, the study endeavors to discursively analyze the ”bottom-up” processes of national reproduction and re-definition in an online, post-socialist context through an empirical examination of the online debate and polemic about the new Polish patriotism. The dissertation argues that approaching nationalism as a broad phenomenon and ideology which operates discursively is helpful for understanding patriotism as an element of the nationalist rhetoric that can be employed to study national unity, sameness, and difference. Emphasizing patriotism within the Central European context as neither an alternative to nor as a type of nationalism may make it possible to explain the popularity and continuous endurance of nationalism and of practices of national identification in different and changing contexts. Instead of facing a new type of nationalism, we can then speak of new forms of engagement which take place in cyberspace that contribute to the process of reproduction of nationalism. The growing field of nation-branding, with both its practical and political implications, is presented as one of the ways in which nationalism is reproduced and maintained as a form of “soft” rather than “hard” power within the global context. The concept of nation re-branding is introduced in order to account for the role that citizens play in the process of nation branding, which has often been neglected in the literature. This concept is utilized to critically examine, understand, and explain the dynamics of nation brand construction and re-definition, with a particular focus on the discursive practices of citizens in cyberspace. It is argued that citizens in the post-socialist countries, including Poland, can engage in the process of nation re-branding online. It is also argued that this process of online nation re-branding may legitimately be regarded as a type of civic practice through which citizens connect with each other and reproduce a form of cultural national intimacy. The results of the analysis of the online empirical material illustrate that nation re-branding is a complex, dynamic, and ambivalent phenomenon. It involves a process of discursive negotiation of nation and of national identity, but also challenges, dismantles, and transforms the national image as it is communicated both internally and externally. This reveals nation re-branding as an element in the post-socialist transformation from a ”nation” to a ”Western,” ”modern,” and ”normal” country in which dealing with an ”old” nation brand is as equally important as the introduction of the new brand. Nationalism does not disappear in the digital age, but rather becomes part of the new way of doing politics online, whereby citizens are potentially granted a form of agency in the democratic process.