To those who study nation branding, this entrepreneurial bent is a strong part of America’s brand, or the image it projects to the world. Peter Hirshberg, CEO of The Re:Imagine Group and a former Apple executive, notes that the U.S. offers an “opportunity promise” to people around the globe, a promise that includes “a deep streak of individual liberty.”

Indeed, Nollywood has become a global phenomenon in the contemporary times. According to Tochukwu J. Okeke, the industry has grown so big today that it is considered a cultural export for Nigeria as it selects most of its themes from the culture of the people, not minding the multiplicity of Nigerian cultures since film can be used “as a catalyst towards the integration of the various ethnic cultures in Nigeria to the extent that it now commands a wide viewership across the African continent and beyond.

For China, the film industry’s lure is evident. China hopes to tap into Hollywood’s expertise as it builds up its own nascent entertainment industry. It also understands popular culture’s potential as a PR platform for the Chinese Communist Party on the global stage.

Saudi Arabia has an image problem. From allegations of exporting a radical Islamist ideology, to the war on Yemen and gender rights, the country’s reputation often takes a battering around the world. Now, the culture ministry has been given the challenging task of improving domestic and international perceptions, while delivering a 10 per cent increase in positive media coverage of the kingdom by 2020.

On Thursday, May 26, the first day of the G7 Summit, Mr. and Mrs. Abe accompanied the world’s leaders and their spouses on a visit to the Shinto spiritual origin of Japan known as Ise Jingu (Ise Grand Shrine) [...] to emphasize Japan’s spiritual core at a shrine noted for its natural beauty and not national politics like that of Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo that rattles nerves throughout Northeast Asia. 

The logic of climate diplomacy is that the best way to encourage others to do more is to reduce emissions more rapidly yourself. But Singapore is limited in what it can offer in terms of cuts because its small land area restricts the availability of domestic renewable energy.

On May 26th, Gallup announced that the Russian people’s approval of U.S. leadership dropped to arecord 1%, which is the worst rating in the world and the lowest approval Gallup has ever recorded. According to an article written by Gallup analyst Julie Ray, the abysmal view of the United States in Russia is a reflection of the country’s “…increasingly tense relations with the U.S. since the crisis in Ukraine and the threat that many Russians, as well as residents of several former Soviet states, feel the U.S. now poses to their countries.”