What's often overlooked in geopolitical power comparisons between competing power blocs is the effect of a unified national language in its relationship to a country's or blocs' competitive edge (or lack thereof) in the global marketplace.
How can a unified national language can equal strength and security for a country, as well as determine its economic prosperity, (or not - if it lacks a unified national language?)
The United States is blessed to have a strong national language (English) — which has endured and prevailed at home and abroad. This is in spite of the influence of so many immigrants entering America, from so many different countries.
A unified language fosters social adhesion, while enhancing economic power.
It manifests itself in the area of advertising, training of workers, entertainment, education, and last but not least, in national defense.
To understand the significant advantages of having a national language, let's use Europe as a prime example of what happens when there is no unified language.
Europe, by contrast and despite having a common market, lacks a unified language (and the advantages of having one imparts) due to the fact that people in Europe speak some 15 different languages (not counting local dialects).
This is a handicap, one coming to the forefront when it comes to intra-European commerce, where, by necessity, the English language has to be used to communicate between let's say French and German businessmen.
Even though European technology is on a par with that of the United States, marketing of high-tech products can be challenging when one considers the printing of a multitude of different language products instructions, and sales catalogs.
Finally, one has to take into account the various electric current standards between some countries. As an example of technical difficulties, the United Kingdom has not fully adopted the metric system — used by all European Union (EU) countries.
This serves to sap overall business efficiency, especially in manufacturing sectors.
As a result, the French may prefer automobiles made in France, rather than in Germany.
No wonder that the Renault automobile company loses money due to low sales volumes.
Similar disadvantages manifest themselves in the area of entertainment, where each major European country insists on having its own movie studios and TV networks.
All of this parochial thinking could disappear if Europe would have their own unified language. The overall effect of this European diversity can be seen in the gross-national product (GDP) difference, which is $62,400 per person in the U.S., versus only $ 30,200 per person in Europe.
While the European Union may be viewed as a fully fledged state, it lacks the main ingredient for such a state, that is a European army. This probably will never happen due to the inherent communication difficulties between soldiers from different nations.
Our adversary, Russia, while having a national language, is handicapped by using the Cyrillic alphabet which is a major handicap in international trade; this also fosters cultural isolation.
It also stifles technological progress due to the fact that foreign textbooks are written predominately by Western authors, in Latin alphabets.
This happened to one of my papers; it first had to be translated into Cyrillic before a Russian engineer could even begin to read it.
China’s language problems are even worse, since it has to contend with two major languages, and their written language lacks the versatility of interchangeable letters. Based on the above, language gives the United States a clear advantage over our competitor nations — still.
Dr. Hans Baumann, a former Corporate Vice President and founder of his company, is a well known inventor, economist, and author having published books on scientific, economic, and historical subjects. Read Dr. Hans Baumann's Reports — More Here.
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