Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm

Robert A. Saunders is Professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Farmingdale State College, a campus of the State University of New York, where he teaches courses on Russia, Central Asia, and world religions. His research interests include post-totalitarian states, geopolitics, popular culture, and the mass-mediation of national identity.

Foreword: [Not] Made in the USSR

1. Of Idols and Idylls: The Question of National Image

2. The Supermarket of Nations: Competitive Identity and the Brand State

3. The Mind’s Eye: Popular Culture, Geographical Imagination, and International Relations

4. A Brand New Eurasia: Places, Spaces, and Peoples of the Post-Soviet Realm

5. The Post-Soviet Bogeyman: A Guide to the Dangerous Personae of the Former USSR

6. Laughable Nations: Parodying the Post-Soviet Republics

7. Mapping Trashcanistan: The Post-Soviet Badlands in Popular Culture, News Media, and Academe

8. Branded! Marketing the New Nations of Eurasia to the (Western) World

9. Conclusion: Post-Soviet Eurasia: The Once-and-Future Geopolitical Imaginary