I have just published the 19th edition of my annual survey, the Anholt Nation Brands Index® (NBI), which has been measuring the “brand images” of countries since 2005.

Every year, we survey around 40,000 people in 20 countries about their perceptions of 50 other countries.

A number of governments subscribe to the NBI and use it to understand how their country, its people and its products, its culture, its tourism, its policies and its investment potential are perceived across the world.

It’s not vanity. Like product brands, country brands are extremely powerful engines of growth and profit: as I wrote in 1998, today’s leaders must be brand managers as much as decision-makers policies.

It has been seven years since the United States last appeared in the NBI’s top spot as the world’s most admired nation: yet, from the launch of the NBI in 2005 until 2016, the position of America’s number one appeared to be a permanent feature of the index.

As of last year, Japan is the most admired country in the world and the United States is between seventh and tenth place.

So how can a country gain or lose a good “brand image” and to what extent does the 47^th Is the President taking issue with America’s diminishing international appeal?

Analysis of nearly a billion data points collected by the NBI since 2005 (which include points on how each country is governed, the beauty of its landscape, the attractiveness of its products, its culture, its economy, or even whether the respondents would like to have a friend from there) demonstrate that the main reason people like or admire other countries is because they feel happy that those countries exist.

People do not necessarily fade away because a nation is rich, powerful, prosperous or beautiful, but because it is seen as contributing to the world beyond its own borders, to humanity and to the planet.

Traditionally, it is the Nordic countries that seem to do best: people associate these nations with the fight against pollution and climate change, with poverty, inequality and conflict.

More recently, countries like South Korea, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Saudi Arabia have seen their scores increase the fastest year over year – and for the same reasons (even if the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are major fossil powers). fuel producers).

There are five main determining factors for a positive national image:

1. The perception that a country possesses strength in terms of population size, territory, economic or military power (what Professor Joseph Nye has dubbed “hard power”, or the ability of a country to impose its will to others)
2. The perception that a country is somehow relevant to the person perceiving it
3. The perception that the country is developing or using advanced technologies
4. The perception that a country is beautiful
5. The perception that a country is a positive force in the world and contributes to peace and prosperity both outside and within its own borders.

Among these five pilots, the fifth is by far the most powerful: this is not a surprise. After all, the success, beauty, prosperity, or strength of other countries primarily benefits the citizens of that country and may even disadvantage others.

What people expect most from other countries is that in taking care of their own people and territory, they do not do so at the expense of others.

And the United States has a long history of such achievements.

After the end of World War II, for example, the US-backed Marshall Plan produced positive results for its donors, its beneficiaries, the entire European neighborhood and arguably much of the world beyond .

This has almost nothing to do with the partisan ideology of multilateralism versus isolationism: it is simply self-interest.

Many people like the idea of ​​strong governments focused on their own country for their own needs. own countries, but few people want governments like this other countries because this makes them more likely to become rivals rather than trading partners, donors, friends and allies.

As the United States heads to the polls, the next administration, whatever its political leanings, must rediscover the art of reconciling domestic and international interests: a challenge at which, historically, America has often excelled and , when necessary, she still does it.

America’s defense of Ukraine (and no doubt a Marshall-style reconstruction plan when the time comes) shows that doing good and doing well, for both countries and businesses, are often the same thing. This is the message America should wake up to on November 6th.