Stephan Sberro

, Professor at the Department of International Studies, ITAM, Mexico, Jean Monnet Chair and Co-Director of the Institute of European Integration Studies.

Stephan Sberro is a full-time Professor in the International Studies department of the ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México) in Mexico City.

Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, he is Co-Director of the Institute of European Integration Studies founded by the European Commission, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ITAM.

He holds a PhD in political science from the Institut des Hautes Études de l’Amérique Latine of the University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle and a post-graduate certificate of Higher European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Research Project

Language and Power: English, French and Spanish in the EU and the United Nations: Lessons for a Pending Debate in NAFTA (and ALCA)

The purpose of this research project is to look at language as the most concrete and measurable way to observe the diffusion of soft power.  Professor Sberro plans to focus on the three languages that can be an instrument of power in North America and in the United Nations Organization and in the European Union-- English, Spanish and French. His research will look at the three major international organizations: The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN), to study both their official juridical status, and the everyday application of language in these three important organizations and the reality of trilingualism. Then, using international Relations Theories, interviews and the recollected data, he plans to set general conclusions about the future of English, French and Spanish as instrument of soft power and a desirable linguistic status (be it institutional or informal) for the North America Block taking in account the European, UN (and possibly Organization of American States) experiences, mistakes and successes. The objective would be to write a book on this neglected but important topic in Spanish, as well as to establish some guidelines for a Linguistic policy with NAFTA that could then extend to ALCA.