New venues of public diplomacy: between nation-branding, place-branding and regional-identity building

Abstract

To some extent replicating the Davos Summit format, the calendar of events “to attend” and “to be seen” in East-Central Europe (CEE) has filled substantially over the past 26 years. In many respects, these venues serve as a demonstration of the region’s political and intellectual elite’s political and economic aspirations. Given those events’ international orientation, they also serve as a measure of third parties’ interest in the region. In the mini-series of IESW COMMENTARY that this issue opens, the main features of these new venues of public diplomacy that have emerged in CEE will be discussed.