Culture as a Nation Branding Tool Within the International Interaction System

The purpose of the study is to clarify the role of culture as a tool for nation branding development, as well as national brand’s building and promoting within the global context of the national discourse. To reach the aim of the research, there was carried out the systematisation of the “nation branding” and “nation brand” concepts, as well as the analysis of theoretical and practical aspects of both nation and cultural brand and image of the country in the context of international cooperation. The research methodology consists in using general methods of empirical and theoretical research based on analysis, synthesis and concretisation. It is to analyse and summarise the results to reveal the “culture” factor’s importance in the nation branding development as an externally oriented phenomenon, in the context of international interaction providing information about what the country is. The scientific novelty of the study is to clarify the cultural constituent’s role in the process of the nation branding development in the context of the “State policy in the field of nation branding”; with the carrying out the analysis of the “culture and heritage” component as a criterion influencing the “Nation Brands” world reputation indexing; looked into the strategies for the Ukrainian culture development as an axis of building a nation brand and international image of Ukraine in the context of cultural diplomacy and intercultural dialogue; with paying attention to the content of the “Study of Ukraine’s perception abroad” results as an indicator of the world awareness of Ukrainian culture in the nation branding context. The conclusions point out that today in the system of international cooperation, culture: cultural heritage, cultural diversity and cultural potential of the country — is gaining importance as a tool for building a national brand and is the most effective means of creating a country/state’s positive international image in the long run. A successful nation branding allows increasing the level of the state’s political influence in the international arena and strengthening international ties, etc.