There will be, in the twenty-first century, a major shake-up of the global language hierarchy.

Events of great import – the unification of Germany: the disappearance of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe; the collapse of the USSR (from inexplicable causes); the United Nations crisis; the abolition of apartheid in South Africa; the end of ‘smouldering wars’ (EI Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia); radical change in Ethiopia, Guyana, Chile; the end of the Mobutu regime in Congo-Zaire … ; the mutual recognition of Israel and the Palestinians; the renaissance of China and the return of Hong Kong to China; the emergence of India, etc. –totally change the geostrategy of the planet. Still other slower paced but world-shaking events, like the continuation of European construction, also exert a decisive influence on the general flux of the political life of the world and, at the same time, cause a series of multiple upheavals. […]