This has been French policy for decades, carried out through La Francophonie. Where schools in foreign countries have a choice of which foreign language to teach students, there's often a sizeable reward in terms of resources for schools that pick French. I don't think there are many takers, though.
English is the dominant global language of the globalisation era, but native speakers be warned - it's not your version of English, whether British or American, it's International English and belongs to no-one. Moreover, who's to say how long it will last? The next global language could easily be Spanish, Chinese or even Esperanto.