Publics in Wartime Nation Branding: A Two-Tiered Segmentation Framework

This study examines strategic publics in wartime nation branding through a public relations lens and from the perspective of participating organizations and practitioners. Although nation branding is multidisciplinary, its connections with public relations theory remain underdeveloped. Addressing this gap, the study investigates how organizations identify and understand strategic publics in Ukraine’s wartime nation branding. Ukraine offers a critical case for examining nation branding under conditions of war, displacement, and heightened international visibility. Using an interpretive qualitative case study design, the research draws on 15 interviews with communication practitioners and qualitative analysis of 23 organizational documents. Building on the findings and prior scholarship in public relations and strategic communication, the study proposes a two-tiered framework for segmenting publics. The first tier comprises dominant coalitions and intermediaries, while the second includes active publics, aware publics, latent publics, and nonpublics. The study bridges public relations and nation branding scholarship by demonstrating the value of public relations theory for analyzing publics in wartime nation branding. It further advances this understanding by underscoring the central role of the national community and by introducing decentralized nation branding as a concept for participatory and cross-sector practice in wartime.