Chinese for everyone

The Czech Social Democrats want to devote Kč 10bn to promoting the English language, but the recent study "Mapping the Global Future" by the U.S. National Intelligence Council suggests that it's time to start thinking about Russian, Chinese or Hindi for the next generation. The NIC, which reports to the CIA, found that the U.S. will still be the leading economy in 2020 but that Russia (because of its natural resources) has the potential to enhance its international role and that the "arriviste" powers (China, India and perhaps others) could render obsolete the old categories of East and West, North and South, etc. The report says that a period of stagnation is possible in Europe. The CR, which isn't mentioned by name, has concentrated on Europe and the U.S. for the past 15 years. A prescient strategy for the next 15 years would include looking more to the East as well. [Czech Republic Project 2020 Central Intellligence Agency foreign languages]