President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged the Cabinet to enhance the soft-power approach to improve Indonesia's image, highlighting national branding as a strategy to improve the country's competitiveness in trade, tourism and investment.

I did make it to the North America Lebanese Diaspora Energy Conference. There I moderated a panel discussion on "Branding Lebanon: Buy Lebanon and Lebanese Cuisine". LDE promotes entrepreneurship in Lebanon and the support was certainly there. The line-up of expatriate participants [...] represented all that is good about the Lebanese migrant tradition.

Justin Trudeau will address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, delivering his maiden speech as Canadian prime minister at the high-level diplomatic forum that had an acrimonious relationship with this country's previous government.[...] "With Trudeau, they're trying to re-engage," [...] "They're saying Canada is back in the world."

The role of country images and knowledge of their constitution and effects is of major interest not only for scholars and professionals in the domain of public diplomacy, but also for various adjacent fields such as international relations, international marketing, or inter-group relations. 

Several African countries have jumped on the brandwagon and included nation branding in their national development program. The Brand Africa initiative, intergenerational movement to create a positive image of Africa, celebrate its diversity and drive its competitiveness, was launched in 2010.

Kateryna Smahliy, the director of the Kennan Institute in Ukraine and a moderator on one of the panels at the World Communication Forum Davos in Kyiv. Kateryna Smahliy reveals to the UT correspondent about the country's image abroad in the context of Ukraine's cultural diplomacy and a win-win strategy as a response to conflicts, which is the leading topic of the upcoming Conference.