Afterword: Gendering the Brand

Abstract

One potentially productive way of framing the debates about nation-branding and public diplomacy is to consider them both subsumed under the broader motivations of status, prestige and reputation. On the one hand, it emphasizes how domestic politics can shape status-seeking and how the domestic resonance of status-seeking matters to its likelihood of success. On the other hand, it leads our attention to the external recognition of status, how it can be associated with circles of recognition, club membership and relative ranking, and also how there is a marked difference between formally equal-status relationships and relationships more in the teacher-pupil mould. As small states, the Nordics wanted to be recognized; gender equality was just not one of the fields that they considered to offer such recognition. While gender equality is certainly part of the self-image of the Nordic states, it is expressed in different ways and also 'usable' for diplomats in different ways.