A discussion of the role of national languages in an international context focuses on the situation of Europe, currently and in the foreseeable future, and particularly on the situation of multilingual Switzerland. The first section gives an overview of the status of national languages outside their own boundaries, especially in relation to spreading cultural diversity in Europe. Swiss research and policy recommendations concerning language in society and in education are outlined. The second section considers issues in national language teaching outside the nation's boundaries in light of Swiss policy recommendations for the media, education, and educational exchanges. The third section looks at language teaching in the context of current European and Swiss education. Commercialization of language teaching is also discussed briefly. Section four addresses the issues of the difficult but necessary articulation between countries, territories, and cultural identities, and discusses in greater detail the problems this poses for Switzerland, as a whole and in its linguistic regions. The final section predicts that this situation will create a period of disequilibrium in Switzerland, and outlines a plan for second language instruction in the nation's schools. Contains 11 references. (MSE)