Introduction Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn 1. External linguistic politics and policies in the German-Speaking countries of Central Europe in early modern times and in the nineteenth century - with some references to the present age Konrad Schröder 2. German global soft power, 1700-1920 Nicola McLelland 3. French as a polemical language for Russian writers in the age of Nicholas I Derek Offord 4. The external cultural and linguistic policy of the Italian government in the Mediterranean region and the issue of the National Association for Aid to Missionaries (1886-1905) Paolo Pieraccini 5. Expansion du français et des manières françaises en Europe aux dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles : résultat d'une politique royale extérieure ou effet d'un certain prestige ? Henri Besse 6. Literary translation as a foreign language policy tool. The case of Russia, mid-eighteenth - early nineteenth centuries Vladislav Rjéoutski 7. L'usage diplomatique de la langue française, instrument de la puissance Lucien Bély 8. The political implications of the idea of 'génie de la langue' in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Gilles Siouffi