By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the English language had become the de facto "lingua franca" of the modern world. It is the most popular second or foreign language studied, such that now there are more people who have learned English as a second language and speak it with some competence than there are native English speakers. But why has English gained such prominence? What effect does this have on the globalized world? In this paper we argue that the importance of English in many ways promotes a neo-colonialism and certainly abets the neo-liberal ideals of encouraging a market economy. We present a series of cases in the Asia-Pacific region to illustrate dimensions of English as the hegemonic language and the implications of this for education policy and practice as examined in comparative education research.