There were many lingua francas of which French was supposedly the first global lingua franca. That changed and it became English (from what I understand). We will probably see another language become the lingua franca, so my question is: should it be English? Are there better candidates out there? Why / why not?
The researchers themselves however also make the valid point that
But I was speaking in general terms, anyway. Language, being a natural phenomenon, of course has lots of variation.