Crafting a NATO Brand: Bolstering Internal Support for the Alliance through Image Management

摘要

NATO confronts four distinct public perception challenges: weak or varying public support for the alliance and its specific missions; a general lack of public awareness of the alliance's post-cold war transformation; diverging opinions on its proper role in the world; and parochial and domestic interests filtering into NATO's agenda. These various public relations challenges detract from alliance cohesiveness, impede mission performance, breed confusion and dissension about alliance aims, and raise questions about the proper operation of democratic governance within the alliance. Recent alliance communication efforts encompassing public diplomacy and strategic communications have failed to improve these public perception challenges. Instead, NATO should consider adopting a long-term branding strategy that focuses specifically on shaping the public's mental image of the alliance through the creation, promulgation, and management of a core message. Such a strategy has the potential to create a more consolidated alliance mandate that is easier for the public to understand and, ultimately, transforms the way NATO relates to its public.