Un-nation Branding: The Cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israeli Soft Power

This chapter presents a theory of ‘un-nation branding’. We define this as the practice of promoting a nation-state with minimal or even no reference to the nation-state. In contrast to nation branding, un-nation branding involves states symbolising themselves as/through cities (or regions) in order to make themselves attractive to others. In articulating this theory, we focus on the case study of Israel’s ‘Two Cities. One Break’ advertising campaign. We highlight how this campaign serves to visually represent Israel as the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As a practice of un-nation branding, we argue that the ‘Two Cities. One Break’ campaign silences contentious aspects of the Israeli state, such as questions about borders, settlements and conflict. As such, this campaign is demonstrative of the importance of un-nation branding for states in the twenty-first century, and we suggest several implications of un-nation branding as well as future directions for research into the role of cities in contemporary accounts of soft power.