English has been the dominant economic and military language since the British Empire girded the planet. From World War 2 onward, the U.S. took on the burden of empire, finally outspending the Soviet Union in the decades-long Cold War to become the world’s only military superpower. But the latest cold war is economic and cultural, fought by people who speak the “wrong” languages and thus cause problems for businesses venturing abroad for the first time and governments wondering what its new enemies are saying. Both suffer from the lack of qualified linguists and language-savvy technologists.

Sensitive to the growing challenge to English-language hegemony, several institutions of higher learning have undertaken new initiatives to improve the quality of international business leadership and academic research.

• California State University at Chico has created an e-marketing and localization program in its College of Business. This track is meant to create a cadre of international marketing professionals who feel comfortable with issues such as software and website localization, project management, and culturally sensitive customization. The program also offers a summer workshop. Incidentally, Don DePalma is an Executive Lecturer for this program, and spoke at Chico on 24 October about globalization issues.
• Kent State University in Ohio has proposed a doctoral program for its Institute for Applied Linguistics. The Institute currently offers two professional translator training degree programs associated with Kent State’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages. The Ph.D. program, currently under review by the Ohio Board of Regents, would add doctoral tracks in translation and translation informatics. This second discipline will address the technology needed to tame the global content life cycle.
• Ireland’s Localisation Resource Centre (LRC) and Brazil’s Centro De Geração De Novos Empreendimentos Em Software E Serviços (GeNESS) signed an agreement that will establish a mirror site of the LRC’s Localisation Technology Laboratory and Showcase (LOTS), develop LRC-GeNESS events and training courses, and conduct joint research projects in internationalization and localization.
• In September the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California launched a master’s degree in translation and localization management. New online classes in website localization and project management complement research initiatives at the Globalization Research Center and the Globalization and Localization of Business Exports (GLOBE).

Incidentally, most of these institutions of higher education have joined the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, GALA, the ATA, the ALC, TILP, MITRE, and OASIS in endorsing the Language Standards for Global Business conference, the first conference dedicated solely to the issue of language standards. This active collaboration of business, industry, trade associations, and academe should go a long way toward increasing knowledge of industry standards, enhancing interoperability, and providing a forum for more collaboration.