When we roundup a comprehensive list of the best countries in the world, we typically rank them by measures of might — GDP, population size, and even a sovereign’s nuclear arsenal.

However, today, with our world defined by rapid change, do these measures continue to make sense in the ranking of nations? Brand consultants FutureBrand set out to grade countries in a new way, starting eight years ago with their first Country Index that measures a nation by sociopolitical, cultural, and quality-of-life factors, and they recently released their updated 2019 report.

Narrowing in on how countries are faring, Enshalla Anderson, chief strategy officer for FutureBrand North America, sat down with me to answer the question of what makes a country mighty or weak by upending traditional metrics and introducing a new framework—Countrymaking, the art of turning a country into a brand that has the unique power of shifting how we feel about a particular region.