Political Marketing and Public Diplomacy by Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian Advocacy Groups

Book excerpt: "This is a significant contribution to our understanding of issues campaigning and lobbying in our evermore complex and global world of 8 billion people. This is a book that gives a critical understanding of how nation brands, international policies and issue group campaigns are branded and developed. Funding, pressure group activity and the complexity of global issue campaigning and lobbying are explored alongside Israel and Palestine within the context of Australia and New Zealand." - Phil Harris, Professor, University of Chester, UK This book looks at how both advocacy groups in New Zealand and Australia use political marketing to conduct advocacy and support Israeli and Palestinian public diplomacy and nation branding. The focus lies on their marketing orientation, segmentation/targeting/ positioning (STP), and internal marketing practices. The theoretical framework will draw upon several political marketing frameworks and concepts including the product/sales/market-oriented framework, the STP process, and Petitt's internal stakeholder marketing approaches. The book examines four case studies: (1) the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), (2) the Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ), (3) the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), and (4) the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN). To ensure balance and comparison, four groups representing both the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps in NZ and Australia were selected. Other criteria included their broad scope of activity, approachability/accessibility, and connections to state actors through advocacy, public diplomacy, and nation branding. Andrew Lim is a researcher based in New Zealand who is particularly interested in how advocacy groups can contribute to public diplomacy. He is also interested in New Zealand politics, history, and social issues.