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Wolfowitz tapped for World Bank
President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he plans
to nominate Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense and one of the
chief architects of the invasion of Iraq two years ago, to become the next
president of the World Bank.
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The announcement, following the appointment of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, was greeted with quiet anguish in many foreign capitals
where the Iraq conflict and its aftermath remain deeply unpopular and Wolfowitz's
drive to spread democracy around the world has been viewed with some suspicion.
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In Washington, the appointment removes Wolfowitz from the president's inner
circle and removes a skilled bureaucratic in-fighter from the Pentagon.
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It clears the way for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take further
control of Iraq policy and opens the field for possible successors to Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, whose future is a constant source of speculation
in Washington.
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The World Bank is the institution that allocates the resources and sets
development policy for much of the Third World.
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Wolfowitz's appointment to succeed James Wolfensohn raises questions about
whether Wolfowitz's ideological views will be reflected in development aid.
But as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989, Wolfowitz developed
a passion for development and aid issues.
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"Paul is committed to development," Bush said Wednesday. "He's
a compassionate, decent man who will do a fine job."
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Despite the displeasure of some diplomats, who hoped that the administration
would appoint someone with a reputation for smooth relations with nations
around the world, they said that they expect Wolfowitz to receive the approval
of the World Bank's board of directors in time for Wolfensohn's departure
in May.
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Announcing the appointment at a news conference at the White House, Bush
said he had called various foreign leaders, including Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi of Italy, to make the case that Wolfowitz will be a strong and
effective leader at the World Bank.
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Bush appeared expansive and almost light-hearted at the morning news conference,
and he was clearly reveling in the developments in Lebanon and Iraq, where
he argued that democratization was on the way.
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But he also, for the first time, made it clear that his patience with Iran
- to which he extended modest new offers of U.S. incentives last week to
give up its nuclear program - had only one chance to take the deal he has
offered, with France, Germany and Britain.
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Wolfowitz is likely to be a target of critics, especially in the Middle
East, where he ranks among Israel's strongest defenders in the administration,
and because of his views with respect to Iraq.
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"We'll have to swallow Wolfowitz like we swallowed John Bolton, since
this is what we now know the administration means by effective multilateralism,"
said a foreign diplomat in Washington who asked not to be named because
of the sensitivity of the issue.
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By tradition, the United States names the president of the World Bank while
Europe chooses the head of the International Monetary Fund, the other organization
in the United Nations family that determines international economic and
financial policy. Most developing countries want this tradition to change.
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A former dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies,
Wolfowitz has a doctorate in international relations and, in addition to
his service in Indonesia, was a ranking State Department official for Asian
affairs under President Ronald Reagan.
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Those are qualifications that most of the other candidates for the job lacked.
Moreover, Wolfowitz also has the ear of the president.
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Wolfensohn, who was part of the consultations that led to the choice of
Wolfowitz, had high praise for him as his possible successor, saying in
a statement that he is "a person of high intellect, integrity and broad
experience both in the public and private sectors and has qualifications
that would be critical to leading" the World Bank.
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Timothy Carney, a retired ambassador and career diplomat who served under
Wolfowitz in Indonesia and Iraq, said that he "will bring experience
in the developing world, enormous energy and intellect, and a willingness
to listen to divergent views to the World Bank."
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"The downside," Carney said, "might be that it takes him
too long to change his mind when he finds out he is wrong."
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Key among the concerns of his critics is Wolfowitz's reputation for pursuing
an ideological agenda.
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Several officials said they feared he would use his position as World Bank
president to focus on the Middle East and his notion of democratization,
rather than continue the current emphasis on Africa and poverty reduction
through a variety of new tests, including policing of corruption and heavy
spending on education instead of the military.
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Among poverty activists, the announcement was treated with almost universal
disdain.
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"As the most prominent advocate of imposing the U.S.'s will on the
world - the architect of the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq
- this appointment signals to developing countries that the U.S. is just
as serious about imposing its will on borrowers from the World Bank as on
the countries of the Middle East," said Njoki Njoroge Njehu, director
of the 50 Years is Enough Network, which opposes most of the World Bank's
policies.
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