Beyond the Nation Brand:The Role of Image and Identity in International Relations

Although the term nation branding is frequently associated with the act of creating favorable images of countries through marketing communications, little evidence suggests this is possible. This paper discusses how the nation brand can really be enhanced through strategy, substance, and symbolic actions. Country examples such as South Korea are used to discuss issues in branding, including reputation management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sovereignty

A qualitative exploration of consumers’ perceived impacts, behavioural reactions, and future reflections of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (2017) as applied to electronic cigarettes

Background: Electronic cigarette regulations included in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), Article 20, implemented in Europe by May 2017, aimed to improve safety for e-cigarette consumers, and prevent uptake among non-smokers, particularly young people. Before implementation, there were significant concerns from consumers, industry, and some in the scientific community about the potential negative impact of the TPD on people using e-cigarettes to stay stopped from smoking. To date, there is limited evidence on how the TPD has affected consumers. This study aimed to add insight into how consumers perceived and experienced the regulations. Methods: Qualitative data, collected between March 2018 and March 2019, relating to participant views of the TPD were extracted from 160 interviews/extended surveys of e-cigarette consumers as part of a wider study into e-cigarette use trajectories (ECtra study). Data were thematically analysed. Results: Awareness of the TPD amongst consumers was not universal. Participants’ smoking behaviour did not appear to be influenced by the legislation. Participants were reassured by manufacturing regulations and requirements for ingredients labels. Participants responded negatively to changes perceived to cause inconvenience and extra plastic waste. The product restrictions prompted some participants to purchase non-compliant products illegally, potentially putting their safety at risk. Conclusions: E-cigarette regulation should focus on ensuring product safety. Raising awareness of the TPD amongst consumers and smokers could be beneficial

Resilience in Practice: Responding to the Refugee Crisis in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon

Little is known about how the idea of ‘resilience’ translates into practice. It has nonetheless emerged as a dominant theme in the governance of crises, such as political instability, armed conflict, terrorism, and large-scale refugee movements. This study draws on interviews with humanitarian and development practitioners in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon working under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan to explore how resilience is interpreted and translated on the ground. Results suggest that resilience is translated as the economic self-reliance of refugees, and the capacity for crisis management of refugee-hosting states, enacted through ‘localization’ and strengthening the ‘humanitarian-development nexus.’ The prominence of the political and economic context and the power relations between crisis response actors that it generates reveals the limits of what a buzzword like resilience can achieve on the ground. The findings highlight the need for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to engage in continuous critical reflection on whether the ways in which resilience policies and programmes are implemented actually improve the ability of systems and vulnerable populations to recover from crisis, as well as on the validity of the assumptions and interpretations on which such policies and programmes are built

Soft power: Power of attraction or confusion?

Despite its popularity soft power remains power of confusion. The paper examines the concept, with a special focus on the nature and sources of soft power. Nye’s notion of soft power is largely ethnocentric and based on the assumption that there is a link between attractiveness and the ability to influence others in international relations. This poses two problems: Firstly, a country has many different actors. Some of them like the attraction and others don’t. Whether the attraction will lead to the ability to influence the policy of the target country depends on which groups in that country find it attractive and how much control they have on policymaking. Secondly, policymaking at the state level is far more complicated than at the personal level; and has different dynamics that emphasise the rational considerations. This leaves little room for emotional elements thus significantly reducing the effect of soft power. Given the nature of soft power being uncontrollable and unpredictable, it would be impossible to wield soft power in any organised and coordinated fashion as Nye suggested. Furthermore, the relationship between two countries is shaped by many complex factors. It is ultimately decided by the geopolitics and strategic interests of nations, in which soft power may play only a limited role. The paper also discusses the link between soft power and nation branding as both concepts are concerned with a nation’s influence on the world stage. Public diplomacy is a subset of nation branding that focuses on the political brand of a nation; whereas nation branding is about how a nation as whole to reshape the international opinions. A successful nation branding campaign will help create a more favourable and lasting image among the international audience thus further enhancing a country’s soft power

Phenotypic and transcriptional response to selection for alcohol sensitivity in Drosophila melanogaster

Gene-expression profiling combined with selection for genetically divergent Drosophila lines either highly sensitive or resistant to ethanol exposure has been used to identify candidate genes that affect alcohol sensitivity, including 23 novel genes that have human orthologs

Nation branding: what is being branded?

Nation branding and nation brand are two different concepts. A nation has a brand image with or without nation branding. This paper examines the concept of nation branding, focusing on the central question of what is being branded. It differentiates nation branding from product branding, and draws comparisons between nation branding and product-country image. Paradoxical issues around the concept and the wider context in which nation branding can be applied are also discussed. More research is needed to find out if and how nation branding could help the economic development in a country. As many other non-marketing factors also affect a nation’s image the role played by nation branding may turn out to be only a modest one

Transcriptional response to alcohol exposure in Drosophila melanogaster

BACKGROUND: Alcoholism presents widespread social and human health problems. Alcohol sensitivity, the development of tolerance to alcohol and susceptibility to addiction vary in the population. Genetic factors that predispose to alcoholism remain largely unknown due to extensive genetic and environmental variation in human populations. Drosophila, however, allows studies on genetically identical individuals in controlled environments. Although addiction to alcohol has not been demonstrated in Drosophila, flies show responses to alcohol exposure that resemble human intoxication, including hyperactivity, loss of postural control, sedation, and exposure-dependent development of tolerance. RESULTS: We assessed whole-genome transcriptional responses following alcohol exposure and demonstrate immediate down-regulation of genes affecting olfaction, rapid upregulation of biotransformation enzymes and, concomitant with development of tolerance, altered transcription of transcriptional regulators, proteases and metabolic enzymes, including biotransformation enzymes and enzymes associated with fatty acid biosynthesis. Functional tests of P-element disrupted alleles corresponding to genes with altered transcription implicated 75% of these in the response to alcohol, two-thirds of which have human orthologues. CONCLUSION: Expression microarray analysis is an efficient method for identifying candidate genes affecting complex behavioral and physiological traits, including alcohol abuse. Drosophila provides a valuable genetic model for comparative genomic analysis, which can inform subsequent studies in human populations. Transcriptional analyses following alcohol exposure in Drosophila implicate biotransformation pathways, transcriptional regulators, proteolysis and enzymes that act as metabolic switches in the regulation of fatty acid metabolism as important targets for future studies of the physiological consequences of human alcohol abuse