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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
For now, let\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
For now, let\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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Students attend Lagos University in Lagos, Nigeria, on March 10, 2016.Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Soltan\/Getty Images<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The world is long overdue for the abandonment of the unstated but powerful hegemony that exists around the great imperial languages of centuries past.<\/p>\n A small market on Song Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan, in July 2024. Haley Zehrung photos for Foreign Policy<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The war in Ukraine is leading to a linguistic backlash in Russophone Central Asia as young people embrace their mother tongues.<\/p>\n An undated image of a Tibetan prayer flag at the Pema Osel Ling retreat center in California. Godong\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The diaspora is preserving Tibetan as Chinese oppression grows at home.<\/p>\n Students look at booklets at their desks on the first day back to school at the National School of Tabarre in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Sept. 5, 2016.HECTOR RETAMAL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Around 90 percent of Haitians speak only Haitian Creole. So why is school mostly conducted in French?<\/p>\n About 500 pupils and their parents protest against the language education reform in front of the parliament in Latvia on Feb 10, 2005. ILMARS ZNOTINS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Baltic nation is taking cultural cohesion into its own hands\u2014and risking backlash.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWho Speaks English?<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
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\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-Kyrgyzstan-language-russian-DSC04171.jpeg\")
\n <\/span>Russian Won\u2019t Be Kyrgyzstan\u2019s Lingua Franca for Long<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
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\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/tibetan-prayer-flag-pema-osel-monastery-GettyImages-1414515018.jpg\")
\n <\/span>Tibetans Fight to Keep Their Language Alive<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
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\n ![\"Students](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/haiti-school-gettyimages.jpg\")
\n <\/span>Haiti\u2019s Foreign Language Stranglehold<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\n ![\"About](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-52170973.jpg\")
\n <\/span>Latvia Is Going on Offense Against Russian Culture<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n