Portuguese as a World Language for Future Army Officers

Response 1 to "Brazil's Rise and Portuguese as a Strategic Foreign Language: Preparing Tomorrow's Military Leaders"

There is no denying that Brazil is still a major power player in Latin America and, in many ways, the world as well. However, Brazil's meteoric economic rise after emerging fairly unscathed from the economic crisis that hit the world in 2007–08 was followed by a no less meteoric fall leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games. More recently, popular unrest and strikes have occurred as a direct result to the current government's tightening of the federal budget; serious political scandals, to include the April 2016 impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, continue to hamper the creation of an effective and stable government; and any hope for a quick resurgence in the economy is offset by occasional news reports of cities going bankrupt amid ongoing claims of government corruption. All of these events, while certainly not unique to Brazil, nonetheless present significant obstacles in Brazil returning in the near future to its most recent former economic glory. That said, like success, conflict can also be a driving force behind any increased interest in a country or culture and, therefore, the Portuguese language is just as strategic now as it ever has been, if not even more so.

At the United States Military Academy at West Point (Army), Portuguese has been considered an important language, if not technically labeled "strategic," since World War II. While initially funded in 1942, the program effectively began with the addition of the first Brazilian Exchange Officer, Capitão Jorge Augusto Vidal, to the foreign language faculty in 1946. This position was important for many reasons. First, it represented an acknowledgment between the US and Brazilian governments (Truman and Dutra) of a reciprocal desire for the further strengthening of political and military ties between the two countries. As an exchange position, this agreement requires that one US Army Officer be sent to Brazil to teach at their Escola Superior da Guerra in Rio de Janeiro. The creation of this position was also a direct result of Brazil sending its famed Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira [FEB]) to fight alongside US/Allied forces in Italy from 1944–45, with the officer exchange symbolically reinforcing the ties that were forged between to the two nations on the battle lines. To date, 34 continuous Brazilian officers, ranking from Captain through Colonel, have taught Portuguese language and content courses to Army cadets at West Point.

Interest in the Portuguese language among cadets, much like their civilian counterparts, has been consistently growing over the past decade or two, although we have seen a stabilization in our enrollments (roughly 150–160 every year in our first-year sequence) in recent years. According to the MLA Language Enrollment Database (1958–2013), students taking Portuguese language courses at the university level have more than doubled since 1986, from 5,021 students in 1986 to 12,415 in 2013, the most recent year available from the survey. Our program at USMA also encourages the global aspect of Portuguese, as it is spoken as an official language in now nine countries on four different continents. Our cadets take advantage of semester abroad opportunities in Portugal and Brazil, as well as short-term immersion experiences in Portugal, Brazil, Lusophone Africa (Mozambique and Cabo Verde to date) and Macau. With the ever-changing world and the uncertainties that come with it, Portuguese will no doubt remain a significant and strategic language for many years to come. As long as we retain our relationships with Portuguese-speaking countries, either through exchanges or immersion programs that provide opportunities for student interactions, we are creating opportunities for success for our future military leaders who are facing such an unpredictable future. And, whether they are assigned to Lajes Air Force Base in the Azores, or complete the Jungle School (Selva) with the Brazilian Army in the Amazon, the most important thing is...