In the coming weeks, Flash Points will have a new name: The Reading List. Expect continued curated guides to the best articles in the magazine. Each Sunday, I’ll take you on a little tour through our archives; on Wednesdays, my colleague Audrey Wilson will send out a companion email to help you navigate trends in the current news cycle.
For now, let’s turn to a subject that is often overlooked in headlines of war and conquest: the imperial tool of language. The in-depth essays and reporting below explore the geopolitics of ongoing fights over language, shedding light on the cultural and linguistic dimensions of imperialism and resistance, both past and present.
Who Speaks English?
The world is long overdue for the abandonment of the unstated but powerful hegemony that exists around the great imperial languages of centuries past.
Russian Won’t Be Kyrgyzstan’s Lingua Franca for Long
The war in Ukraine is leading to a linguistic backlash in Russophone Central Asia as young people embrace their mother tongues.
Tibetans Fight to Keep Their Language Alive
The diaspora is preserving Tibetan as Chinese oppression grows at home.
Haiti’s Foreign Language Stranglehold
Around 90 percent of Haitians speak only Haitian Creole. So why is school mostly conducted in French?
Latvia Is Going on Offense Against Russian Culture
The Baltic nation is taking cultural cohesion into its own hands—and risking backlash.
The post The Fight Over Language, From Haiti to Kyrgyzstan appeared first on Foreign Policy.
