Lack of Languages Learnt Lowers following Linguistic Leap

The article I read today dealt with the increase of instruction in foreign languages in the US. The article reveals that "The latest figures from the Modern Language Association of America, released Tuesday, reflect a major push toward internationalization on college campuses, more government support for language study and simply more interest from students. Over four years, total enrollment in language courses has grown 12.9 percent." However, this is not what interested me the most in the article. What I found particularly interesting is that the most prominently growing language is Arabic. "Arabic is the fastest-growing major language, breaking the top 10 for the first time with just under 24,000 enrollments," according to the article. The amount of students taking Arabic and institutions offering it has more than doubled since 2002.
What accounts for this specific increase? The article hints that "Enrollments in languages such as Russian and Arabic have traditionally spiked with world events." This is a pretty direct hint that languages gain prominence and a need for languages develops as those languages become important to people's direction or goals in life: namely, political and business goals. With the Middle East the current focus of American and international peace efforts, with Iraq the current American overseas military target, and with the political issue of terrorism (namely: Islamic extremist terrorism), Arabic is prominent to many people's direction and goals. Students who wish to follow careers in politics, international relations, or diplomacy and peace have a significant impetus to study Arabic. For the same reasons, the number of students taking Russian spiked during the cold war, at a time where communication between Russia and the US, the two world superpowers, was necessary for any students with a focus on international politics.
Schools are now, in fact, specifically offering languages in the context whereby they are considered most useful such as "medical Spanish, Chinese for business." The importance of situations to language gives birth to language dominance and imperialism: as languages are considered more important to career paths and international affairs, they are more likely to gain prominence in education. Thus, languages fluctuate: just as when the Roman Empire or Sumeria conquered surrounding territories, the necessity of being able to communicate with prominent cultures puts smaller languages on the backburner. Only in the modern era, physical domination isn't necessary for language imperialism. The societies that create technology, job opportunities, and political change draw constituents away from other languages in the same kind of competitive environment that leads to language imperialism.

article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7074638,00.html