Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker, left, gestures while speaking during a joint media conference with World Bank President nominee Paul Wolfowitz at the EU Council building in Brussels, March 30, 2005. (Virginia Mayo/Associated Press)
"I understand that I am, to put it mildly, a controversial figure," said U.S. deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz about his own candidacy for president of the World Bank. His views are commonly described as "hawkish." Critics single him out for his pro-Israel stance in the Middle East conflict and for his passionate backing of the invasion of Iraq. Others see him as an idealist, a defender of human rights and a true believer in democracy.
After 24 years of service to the U.S. government under six presidents, Wolfowitz, 61, brings a wealth of experience to his new post – some of it considered a success and some of it not.
Wolfowitz played a key role in sending the present U.S. administration back into the Middle East to depose Saddam Hussein. "Help the Iraqi people remove him from power," Wolfowitz said in testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1998. "However – and I think this is very important – the estimate that it would take a major invasion with U.S. ground forces seriously overestimates Saddam Hussein."
Three years on, just days after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Wolfowitz was strongly advocating the invasion of Iraq as an extension of the American war on terror. Unlike others even within the U.S. administration, he did not doubt the link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. In the absence of concrete proof, Wolfowitz became associated with vague references to classified information and insistent claims that action was urgently needed.
"I think the premise of a policy has to be, we can't afford to wait for proof beyond a reasonable doubt," he said in 2002 to a reporter who challenged him on the case for war in Iraq.
As for the cost to the United States: "It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq that it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army," Wolfowitz said to a House budget committee just weeks before the war. "Hard to imagine."
After a gross miscalculation on the cost of the war in both human and monetary terms, with no end in sight to the perilous presence of U.S. forces in the country, the Bush administration shifted its rhetoric from pre-empting danger to the spread of democracy in the Middle East. And Wolfowitz can take credit and responsibility for the idea of liberalizing Iraq and, by ripple effect, the Middle East. Reportedly, even Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, had doubts on this one. This is where some who know Wolfowitz talk of the man's idealism – while skeptics call it his naiveté.
Wolfowitz once said he was astonished by the argument that in the absence of an imminent threat from Saddam, the invasion of the country was unwarranted. To him, this argument accepts the brutality of Saddam. When challenged on his belief about bringing freedom to the Middle East, he points to the success of some countries in Asia, such as South Korea.
His own experience in Asia, as ambassador to Indonesia during the years of the Reagan administration, is certainly considered a success and a point when his political career blossomed. Wolfowitz immersed himself in the culture, he even learned the language. He attended academic seminars, climbed volcanoes and visited farms. As Peter Boyer of the New Yorker writes, "People who have spent much time with Wolfowitz eventually notice that Indonesia is the one subject guaranteed to brighten his mood."
People who have followed his career will note his commitment to the promotion of human rights and his support for dissidents of oppressive regimes. Just months ago, Wolfowitz urged the Indonesian government to acquit a journalist on trial in a case that he saw as an attack on press freedom. "One of the worst possible ways that power can be abused is to take away the freedom of the press and thereby remove one of the most important mechanisms for ensuring that government respects the rights of its citizens," he wrote in the New York Times.
Paul Wolfowitz will take over as president of the World Bank on June 1, 2005. He said that he is "eager to take on this challenge."
Quick facts:
Education:
1965: Bachelor's degree in mathematics, Cornell University
1972: Doctorate degree in political science, University of Chicago
Professional Career:
1970-1973: Taught at Yale University
1973-1977: Worked with U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
1976-1977: Special assistant for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
1977-1980: Deputy assistant secretary of defence for regional programs
1981-1982: Head of State Department policy planning staff
1982-1986: Assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs
1986-1989: U.S. ambassador to Indonesia
1989-1993: Undersecretary of defence for policy
1993: Taught at the National Defence University
1994-2001: Dean, School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University
2001-2005: Deputy secretary of defence
2005-2007: President of the World Bank