摘要：In this introductory essay we discuss the importance of studying the BRICS (acronym of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the emerging themes of scholarship about the BRICS in general, and the eight essays collected in this Special Section. We argue that studying the BRICS demands understanding the strategic and ambivalent engagement of these nations with their own history, the colonial West, and modernity. Such an ambivalence is shown by how these countries deal with the dialectics of tradition and modernity; the local and global; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; and hope, desire, and anxiety in a postcolonial world. Thus, their nation branding and public diplomacy efforts, to a large extent, aim to facilitate domestic and global political and economic objectives.
其他摘要：In this introductory essay we discuss the importance of studying the BRICS (acronym of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the emerging themes of scholarship about the BRICS in general, and the eight essays collected in this Special Section. We argue that studying the BRICS demands understanding the strategic and ambivalent engagement of these nations with their own history, the colonial West, and modernity. Such an ambivalence is shown by how these countries deal with the dialectics of tradition and modernity; the local and global; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; and hope, desire, and anxiety in a postcolonial world. Thus, their nation branding and public diplomacy efforts, to a large extent, aim to facilitate domestic and global political and economic objectives.
关键词：The BRICS; national identity; nation branding; nationalism; cosmopolitanism; affect
