The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

sideration if we are to have any option but generations of bloody combat. And even if the reader does not share the author’s bleak outlook and forceful dissent to the foreign-policy status quo, this is an essential book to under- stand our enemies and the challenges ahead of us. Thomas Ferguson is a retired FSO whose last assignment was in the Office of Strategic, Proliferation and Military Affairs in the Intelligence and Research Bureau. Politics and Languages Do Mix Languages in a Globalising World Jacques Maurais and Michael A. Morris, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2003, $24.00, paperback, 362 pages. R EVIEWED BY T HOMAS W. C RAWFORD Languages in a Globalising World makes a compelling case for two propositions: political-power relation- ships determine the fate of languages; and languages can affect political and economic relations, both within and among countries. The book first appeared in French in 2001 as an issue of Terminogramme , the journal of Quebec’s Office de la langue française, but its more recent publication in English by Cambridge University Press opens the door to a much broad- er readership. Sandwiched between the introduc- tion and conclusion are 19 chapters arranged in three sections: “Global Communication Challenges,” “Major Areas,” and “Languages of Wider Communication.” The insightful essays cover a wide range of topics that will be of interest to many in the for- eign affairs community. The highlight of the opening sec- tion for me is Jacques Maurais’ exami- nation of the extent to which lan- guages were used on the Internet from 1999 to 2003. He offers useful, tabular data in considering trends in the utilization of some 30 languages to communicate in cyberspace. As its title, “Major Areas,” suggests, the middle part of the book is orga- nized along geographic lines. An essay by Ferenc Fodor and Sandrine Peluau analyzes the increasing interest in English as a second language in six for- mer Soviet satellites, and uses tables and graphs to illustrate the changing preferences for French, English, German and Russian in Hungary. In “Languages and Supernationality in Europe: The Linguistic Influence of the European Union,” Claude Truchot covers everything from the E.U.’s internal rules to its role as an institution regulating language use and the limits of institutional multilingualism. Birgit N. Schlyter examines in detail the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, as Central Asian nations quickly abandoned the Russian tongue and the Cyrillic alpha- bet for their own, unique ones, even as they faced a host of other daunting challenges. The details of adopting unified and standard alphabets in such short order will, admittedly, be of pri- mary interest to linguists of Central Asian languages. But Ms. Schlyter’s insightful explanations of the cultural and political forces at play should appeal to a broader readership. Those interested in relationships between the hundreds of African lan- guages and the European languages imposed upon the African continent will find Roland Breton’s chapter on sub-Saharan Africa informative. He delves into the historical involvement of European powers in Africa and cites various factors to explain current lin- guistic policies of African governments and trends in use of different languages on that continent. Interactions of language, politics and economics are revealed in the chapter, “Regional blocs as a barrier against English hegemony? The lan- guage policy of Mercosur in South America.” Issues regarding the use of Spanish, Portuguese and English in Mercosur are examined in revealing detail by Ranier Enrique Hamel, a professor of linguistics at the Universidad Metropolitana Autónoma in Mexico City. The third part of Languages in a Globalising World includes separate chapters explaining the roles of Ger- man, Arabic, Russian, French, English and Brazilian Portuguese in global communications. The theme of the worldwide ascendancy of English that pervades this entire collection of essays is particularly prominent here. The very knowledgeable authors and editors of the book hail frommany countries — Germany, Australia, France, Canada, the United States, Hungary, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Sweden — and offer a diversity of viewpoints and back- grounds. As a result, readers will increase the breadth and depth of their insights about the political, eco- nomic and historical forces shaping the choices that individuals and gov- ernments must make to communicate in today’s changing, but steadily glob- alizing, world.  Thomas W. Crawford Jr. was a Foreign Service officer with USAID from 1987 to 1994. He is associate program direc- tor of the International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Program at the University of Nebraska and is president of the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development. N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 B O O K S u