Internal–International Alignment of Qatar’s Nation Brand Perceptions

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which internal stakeholders’ perceptions of Qatar’s nation brand align with international perceptions in the post–FIFA World Cup context. Drawing on Simon Anholt’s Nation Brand Index, the study evaluates Qatar across governance, people, tourism, culture and heritage, exports, and investment and immigration, and whether these evaluations are shared consistently across internal groups. The results show three core patterns. First, internal stakeholders express uniformly positive assessments of Qatar’s nation brand, with particularly strong confidence in governance and the social environment. Second, internal consensus is uneven: while societal and institutional dimensions are broadly shared, perceptions of economic competitiveness and opportunity show greater differentiation across demographic groups, especially by age and residence history. Third, internal evaluations are consistently more favourable than international perceptions across all aspects, indicating a systematic internal–external perception gap rather than isolated misalignments. This difference points to a reputational asymmetry in which domestic experience is not fully reflected in external evaluation. The study determines that effective nation branding and public diplomacy depend on converting internal strengths into internationally credible narratives grounded in lived experience and stakeholder validation.