ABSTRACT
In this chapter I consider the (re)militarization and, to a lesser extent, corporatization of foreign and second language education in a post-9/11 context and in light of increased immigration. In so doing, I seek to locate the discussion of education as enforcement both within and beyond the borders of the United States. As I have elsewhere rejected at length school-based language instruction for expressly military, monetary and material purposes,1 I do not reiterate those arguments here. Instead, I briefly trace the literature on militarization in language education and introduce Daisaku Ikeda’s (1928-) concept of “society for education” as a corrective to what he calls the “spirit of abstraction” fostered by ideological, militaristic, economic and political policies and practices in education in general and language education in particular.
