Language skills have never necessarily translated into internationalism. Napoleon’s first language was Italian, but one of his foremost legacies is a system to eradicate linguistic diversity, including in his native Corsica. Kaiser Wilhelm II viscerally hated England, a country whose language he spoke so well he could pass for his cousin George V (and vice versa with George’s German). Sir Antony Eden spoke very good Arabic, which helped make him confident enough to plunge Britain into the disastrous Suez Crisis in 1956.