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Kazakhstan, nation branding and national identity : the cases of nuclear nonproliferation and Astana Expo-2017
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Joldybayeva, Elmira (2021) Kazakhstan, nation branding and national identity : the cases of nuclear nonproliferation and Astana Expo-2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3735697~S15
Abstract
This thesis studies Kazakhstan’s nation branding initiatives and their implications for the evolution of its national identity. The building of a new national identity and a favourable international image has been integral to Kazakhstan’s pursuit of its security, political and economic interests since its independence in 1991. However, Kazakhstan has continued to face challenges to its identity from ‘negative misrecognition’ – the process where external actors reject the national identity a state seeks to build. Nation branding constitutes Kazakhstan’s response to negative misrecognition by changing how it represents itself and is represented by others. Based on the literature on identity and branding, this thesis develops a conceptual framework to explain nation branding as an identity construction process divided into five steps: branding context, branding motivations, branding channels, branding narratives and branding effectiveness.
This thesis examines two cases: international conferences on nonproliferation and disarmament and Expo-2017 in Astana. The findings show that although Kazakhstan was able to increase its global visibility in both cases, the former was more effective than the latter in communicating Kazakhstan’s branding narratives and persuading others into recognising its self-representation. The history of Soviet nuclear testing and Kazakhstan’s achievements in denuclearisation gave credibility to the country’s branding narratives about its transformation from a voiceless victim of the global nuclear arms race into an advocate of the global anti-nuclear movement, a model of denuclearisation and an upholder of a rule-based international order. In contrast, the Astana Expo’s branding effectiveness was undermined not only by corruption scandals but also by the discrepancy between the narrative about Kazakhstan as a Eurasian nation on its path to becoming an advanced and green economy on the one hand, and the reality of the country’s socioeconomic development on the other. Consequently, Kazakhstan’s attempt to redefine its national identity and international image remained incomplete.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce J Political Science > JZ International relations |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Place marketing -- Political aspects -- Kazakhstan, Branding (Marketing) -- Political aspects -- Kazakhstan, National characteristics, Kazakh, Cultural diplomacy -- Kazakhstan | ||||
Official Date: | July 2021 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Page, Edward, 1968- ; Kuzemko, Caroline, 1970- | ||||
Sponsors: | Kazakhstan | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | ix, 269 leaves : illustrations (some colour) | ||||
Language: | eng |
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