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This section uses multimedia storytelling through essays, video, and illustrations to explore how France spread its language and culture across seven key regions through case studies—though its reach extends even further. While the French Empire seizes to exist in the form of hard power and military force, its influence continues to grow today, but in a new form.

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part three

THE ART OF INFLUENCE

France’s influence isn’t enforced—it’s crafted. Through the arts, language, and rhetoric, it has built a global image of grandeur and sophistication, carefully shaped by diplomacy, aesthetics, and cultural prestige.

The French language itself plays a crucial role, positioned as one of diplomacy and power, its sounds evoking refinement and authority. France has cultivated an identity where elegance and prestige are inseparable from its language. This section explores the strategies behind that influence, from the rhetoric that defines France’s global standing to the visual aesthetics that continue to symbolize status and sophistication.

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part four

CONTESTED LEGACY

Voices from the Ground

French influence means different things to different people—a privilege, an opportunity, or a remnant of colonization. Each perspective continues to shape its power and impact in different ways. This section brings together local voices, firsthand experiences, and expert insights, spanning the full spectrum of French language diplomacy as soft power to examine how it is experienced, challenged, and redefined.

For some, speaking French is a gateway to opportunity—a tool for mobility, education, and cultural connection. For others, it represents a history of inequality, reinforcing structures of power that persist today. Does the language open doors, or does it uphold old hierarchies? And as global power dynamics shift, who truly controls the narrative?

As this study comes to a close, these voices offer a final reflection on the evolving role of French cultural diplomacy. One truth remains—language is never neutral. Its meaning is shaped by those who speak it, those who teach it, and those who hold the power to define it.

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To me, language is culture—there's no separation between the two. I think they are completely linked together, and that in itself is a tool of soft power. It becomes a complete representation of what you are, who you are, and what you do.

— Philippe Poirier, Director of Alliances Francaise of Philadelphia
French is more than just a language for me. It connects me to my past, to places I have lived, and to what I want to do in the future. It helps me remember where I came from and lets me help others who are in tough situations like I was.

— Nasser Otmani
France is the only ally who has always been our ally. We have never gone to war against France. We have against the UK because that was our revolution. But we have never fought France. So France kind of sees its role as like sibling rivalry, right? Like, ‘I got your back, but also don’t tread on me.’

— Brenda Dyer, French Program Director and Professor at Drexel University
Every French speaker has some responsibility to keep the language alive—whether by speaking it, teaching it, or promoting it. But whether that will be enough to sustain its global influence? I don’t know.

— Alan Arbert
Now that I am in the United States, I realize how much of an advantage it was to have studied in a French high school. It allows me to easily connect with people from France and other French-speaking countries, as I was from France myself in terms of education and culture. This has been a huge asset, both socially and academically.

— Mohamed Ezzarhouni

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

FRENCH LANGUAGE

DIPLOMACY AS

SOFT POWER

Senior Capstone

Department of Global Studies & Modern Languages Drexel University

Authored & Designed by Becca Newman Advised by Joel Oestreich

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table of contents

part two

part three

part four

To me, language is culture—there's no separation between the two. I think they are completely linked together, and that in itself is a tool of soft power. It becomes a complete representation of what you are, who you are, and what you do.

French is more than just a language for me. It connects me to my past, to places I have lived, and to what I want to do in the future. It helps me remember where I came from and lets me help others who are in tough situations like I was.

Every French speaker has some responsibility to keep the language alive—whether by speaking it, teaching it, or promoting it. But whether that will be enough to sustain its global influence? I don’t know.