In to­day’s glob­al econ­o­my, coun­tries com­pete not on­ly through eco­nom­ic poli­cies and per­for­mance but in­creas­ing­ly through per­cep­tion. In­vestors, tourists, in­ter­na­tion­al stu­dents and glob­al busi­ness­es eval­u­ate des­ti­na­tions based on rep­u­ta­tion, sta­bil­i­ty, com­pet­i­tive­ness and op­por­tu­ni­ty. In that sense, coun­tries now op­er­ate much like brands.