I am a 4th generation Hispanic in the Midwest US who's fluency in English is regarded as among the best. My father didn't learn English until he went to 1st grade. and I didn't [begin to] learn Spanish, until I was in 9th grade. Alas, while I can sing some of the old Spanish Folk songs, I cannot speak the tongue. I regard myself as the generation that dropped the ball of our proud family tongue. I will fix that unless I die too soon.
I do believe that the language is the soul of our culture, and needs to be preserved. So I practice a little every day. AND I make sure my kids see me practice and know that I am serious about learning our mother tongue. We do practice at the table almost every night, but I know that TV's influence may outreach mine as they grow.
As for the notion that language will help resolve world peace and put to rest the "power of the Tower of Babel"... Hogwash. Look at how many nations who spoke the same language have warred with each other, English included. So we have a current fad for English that covers almost one third of the globe. Mostly for business and trade reasons. It will solve some mis-communication disagreements and yet be the cause of some new ones. Give it a minute of thought and I think you will agree.

Are you unaware that the Chinese will forever veto such an official and eternal proclomation of "English is THE global language". Any international linguist should be able to tell you how they fight such potentialities since they believe an Oriental tongue will be easier to learn as THE international language…. mostly because so many Chinese already speak one. They have a point but their persuasions are as unskilled and no better than cold war Russian's were. Still, they are as insulted as they want to be, and insist that they be put at the head of the line for being able to push the world's power buttons. Sigh. Someone tell them about catching flies with vinegar. So far they seem pretty unhappy with the West in general. They could have half the globe's population in one quick power grab and who's to say what they really want. I don't think they know yet. Just remember that today's English fad, could become subsumed by economics again, just as it has now.

I believe the winner will be the most flexible language, meaning some new pidgin phonetically spelled English that arises on the internet, that is brokered and filtered with legally agreed to meanings like a good dictionary company would do. That is what will take over in an unstoppable manner. And this will be one that uses internationally accepted phonetic spellings to eliminate all the 11 differerent spellings to elicit the phoneme "sh".

No, it still won't bring world peace or stop world hunger. Language will always be as potent as cannonballs, and some will always regard the sword as their dependable "fallback persuasion".
But a global English WILL still be a good thing. And there may be two gloabl languages, an oriental one and a Western one. Hegemony is not necessary for success of a global language.
Still we ought to shudder at the idea of visiting Italy and no one speaks Italian, or New Zealand and no one speaks Maori. I do. Cultural treasures belong in the culture, not JUST in museums

Thanks for listening
TC