What very often we tend to forget is that nation brands already exist for all countries irrespective of whether or not they are being managed. The issue then is: should a country allow itself to run reputational risks by being complacent or by actively engaging itself in steering its image in the highly competitive attention economy.
The more I think through it, the more I get to realise that public diplomacy is to nation branding what an 'operating system' is to PCs, sector branding is similar to 'application softwares' whereas a dedicated national branding agency would be a critical 'utility software' with high-end features that would ideally capture any reputation risk and assist in 'quarantining' some of the issues, 'repair' or 'delete' others.
