This paper explores the image management strategies of more recent dictators and authoritarian regimes: How did – and how do – they market themselves? When and why are they successful? And how do their strategies differ from those of liberal regimes in the quest for global prestige and support? I examine states such as North Korea, China, and Russia, and various Middle Eastern states, occasionally glancing back at European dictatorships. Terms such as “undemocratic”, “nonliberal”, “authoritarian”, or “illiberal” are used to describe states that reject, subordinate, or strategically instrumentalise core liberal principles, including freedom of expression, individual autonomy, and the separation of powers. In doing so, these regimes pursue authoritarian objectives – most notably, the centralisation of power and suppression of dissent. A central argument is that the less political a national brand appears, the more successful it tends to become, regardless of how compromised its underlying political profile may be.