2023/07/13 by Wayne Stephen Coetzee, Sebastian Larsson, Joakim Berndtsson · 9 citations
Social Sciences · #Economics #Economy #European Union Policy and Governance #European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies #International Relations and Foreign Policy #Law #Nation branding #Per capita #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Power (physics) #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00108367231184730
published in Cooperation and Conflict 59(1), 86-106 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2023/07/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Contemporary research on so-called Nordic branding has provided crucial insights into the social power of states and how various actors use and circulate ‘progressive’ nation brand tropes for political and commercial goals. Hitherto, the literature on Nordic branding has focused on a wide range of substantive issues, among other things, human rights, gender equality, social welfare and foreign aid, but considerably less attention has been paid to the topic of security. The present article adds to a small but established literature on how the security sphere is increasingly entangled with nation branding. In the Nordic region, we argue, the latter is particularly evident in the case of Sweden – one of the world’s largest per-capita arms exporters in the post-Cold War era but also a country known and often revered for its peaceful and progressive image. Focusing on the case of Sweden, the article contributes to knowledge of how defence industry-related actors (both public and private) draw on and frame nation branding tropes to sell and legitimise their products and services to both insiders (domestic constituents) and outsiders (the global security market).