Forum Paper Title: Language and Power: English, French and Spanish in the EU and the United Nations: Lessons for a Pending Debate in NAFTA (and ALCA)
Commentators: Sally Engle Merry and Martin Schain
Abstract of Forum Paper:
Language is at the core of both Identity and Democracy, the two missing elements that would make of Europe a modern political community of its own right.
The language problem was addressed in the beginning of the European construction. Nevertheless, even if we suppose it had been addressed properly then, it is no longer adapted to the new reality of the European Union. The EU still functions with the rules set in 1951 and 1957, with six countries, and four languages.
The linguistic status of European Institutions is subject to the heated political debate which did not translate in the Constitutional Treaty or the Lisbon Treaty. Such discussion is hardly incipient yet in North America as a block.
In the case of a deepening of North American Integration, such a political debate is bound to emerge. Thus the present disregard for the linguistic balance of power is likely to be temporary in North America. The aim of my research project is to prepare for that debate, theoretically as well as concretely.
Lessons from the ongoing debate in Europe will prove invaluable. What happens at the Organization of American States and at the United Nations, where English, French and Spanish also have special status, could certainly be of importance too.
This is a political as well as a technical debate but in the whole, as is usually the case with Regional Integration, it has more to do with political considerations, interests and priorities than with linguistic, economic or legal concerns.
As the essence of the question is how a country can first preserve its sovereignty and then project itself and promote its objectives on the International Scene through its ideas and culture. It is thus a multidisciplinary discussion including elements of politics, economics, Law, and socio-linguistics.
In the International Relations field, there are perspectives and theories, which could facilitate understanding the debate in both groupings. Although I shall draw upon many of them, I shall lead with the idea of “soft power”. “Soft power”, as described by Joseph Nye, refers to the ability of a State to influence directly or indirectly the behaviour or the interests of other actors through cultural or ideological means or any other form of power that is not “hard” (sheer strength).
More specifically, the project will look at three mayor international “regimes”: the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), to study both their languages official legal status, and the everyday
application of language in these important organizations and the evolving reality and balance as way to reflect the soft power policies of the main international actors.
My hypothesis is that although English is the undisputed international language, it is hard to imagine that in a near future it will be the only one, not even at the UN or within NAFTA. Moreover, although the dominance of English is a seductive notion for most economists and for American and British politicians and jurists, such an evolution might not be desirable. Multilinguism is necessary not only for political, cultural, socio-linguistic and philosophical reasons but also because it guarantees the legitimacy of supra-national and international institutions.
So what could be a workable and fair solution to the essential problem of communication in the IR field and could Spanish and French, as “lesser international languages”, play a special role in that solution?
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