Paul Wolfowitz

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Paul Wolfowitz (2015)

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is an American politician ( Republican Party ). From 2005 to 2007 he was President of the World Bank . Previously, he served as political advisor to George W. Bush and Deputy Defense Minister ( Deputy Secretary of Defense ) under Prime Donald Rumsfeld .

Origin and education

His father was the mathematician Jacob Wolfowitz , a Polish Jew who emigrated to America in 1920. His mother was Lillian Dundes. Several of his father's relatives in Poland were killed in the Holocaust .

Intellectually influenced by Leo Strauss , Allan Bloom and his doctoral supervisor Albert Wohlstetter , Wolfowitz is considered a neoconservative who is vehemently committed to supporting Israel and a strong military presence to safeguard US interests worldwide. He graduated from Cornell University in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry . He studied political science at the University of Chicago and received his doctorate in 1972.

Career in politics and science

Paul Wolfowitz on September 19, 2001

Wolfowitz's career in politics and teaching goes back a long way, switching between the two fields again and again. He was a government employee as early as 1966/67. From 1970 to 1973 he taught at Yale . During this time he was close to the Social Democrats USA (SDUSA), which had emerged from the right wing of the Socialist Party of America (SPA); later he was a member of the Democratic Party before joining the Republicans. For four years - from 1973 to 1977 - he served in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , where he participated in disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union and dealt with issues relating to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. This was also the subject of his dissertation "Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East: Politics and Economics of Nuclear Water Desalination" in Chicago. In his dissertation, Wolfowitz strongly opposed nuclear weapons under Israeli control, because the Arab states would also try to arm themselves with nuclear weapons . From 1977 to 1980 Wolfowitz was "Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs" and was involved in the creation of the institution that later became the United States Central Command (US Central Command ). In addition, Wolfowitz initiated the strategic program for the global deployment of naval forces, which, according to official reports, twelve years later was the "backbone" of "Operation Desert Shield" (see Second Gulf War ). Between 1981 and 1982 he was Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State . After that, he worked from 1982 to 1986 as a successor to Richard Holbrooke Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs ( Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs ) at the State Department and from 1989 to 1993 Secretary of State for political issues in the Defense Ministry.

In 1986 the scientist, who had already worked for Nixon and under Jimmy Carter in the Pentagon, was appointed US ambassador to Jakarta ( Indonesia ) under President Ronald Reagan to succeed John H. Holdridge . There Wolfowitz learned Indonesian . At that time, East Timor was in the bloody struggle for independence against the Indonesian dictator Suharto , whose troops were holding East Timor. Wolfowitz stood up for Suharto's benefit. Later Wolfowitz campaigned vehemently to fight so-called rogue states - if necessary, militarily.

In March 1992, after the Second Gulf War, Wolfowitz, then Secretary of State under George Bush , drafted a new version of US global military strategy. In his design, he argued that the US could be preemptive strikes ( pre-emptive strikes be forced) to the use or development of weapons of mass destruction to prevent by hostile states. The then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was officially responsible for this revision - but it was drafted by Wolfowitz and his assistant Lewis Libby .

In the 1990s, the political scientist was Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington , an institution of Johns Hopkins University with its headquarters in Baltimore . She has on issues of international relations ( International Relations specializing). In 1993 Wolfowitz was also "George F. Kennan Professor of National Security Strategy" at the National War College .

Wolfowitz has published a wealth of publications on his core topics. He is the bearer of numerous orders and awards.

On January 26, 1998, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle , Donald Rumsfeld , Richard Armitage and fourteen other signatories wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton calling for a violent regime change in Iraq and a more aggressive policy in the Middle East. This letter was supported by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) founded by William Kristol .

Wolfowitz is the co-author of Rebuilding America's Defenses , published in September 2000, which identified the use of racial biological weapons as a useful political tool.

In February 2001, Wolfowitz became Deputy Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration , his third engagement in the Pentagon.

World bank

US President Bush congratulates Paul Wolfowitz on his nomination as President of the World Bank

On March 31, 2005, Wolfowitz was unanimously elected President by the Executive Council of the World Bank , in which the 184 member countries are represented by 24 directors. There was no opponent. He was the preferred candidate of George W. Bush, which had been known for a long time, but was not officially nominated until early March 2005. Wolfowitz succeeded James David Wolfensohn , whose ten-year term ended on June 1, 2005.

criticism

Iraq war

The Islamic scholar Michael Lüders accuses Wolfowitz of incompetence in the decision to dissolve the Baath party after the Iraq war was won without a concept for further development . Lüders sees Wolfowitz's decision as the cause of the establishment of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria .

World Bank Director

Traditionally, the USA - the institute's largest shareholder - nominates the President of the World Bank, while the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is usually provided by the Europeans.

Paul Wolfowitz's nomination met with considerable skepticism, especially in Europe, but also in the USA itself. It was feared that Wolfowitz could lead the World Bank in the interests of America and at the expense of poorer countries. In addition, Wolfowitz can show little experience in the field of international development policy. However, Wolfowitz managed to allay the concerns in advance by explaining his program to European development politicians in Brussels - a first in the history of the institute. He emphasized that he did not pursue his own political agenda and wanted to lead the World Bank in the interests of all its members.

Promotion affair

In an affair over the dubious beneficiary of his partner, the Arab suffragette Shaha Ali Riza , for whom he had promoted and raised a substantial salary as her superior at the World Bank in 2005, Wolfowitz admitted in April 2007 that he had “made a mistake”. Due to massive criticism of favoritism , he resigned from office on June 30, 2007. His successor was Robert Zoellick .

Current activity

Wolfowitz is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and has been responsible for US economic relations with Taiwan since 2008.

See also

literature

  • Watanabe Koji, Bill Emmott, Paul Wolfowitz (Eds.): Managing the International System Over the Next Ten Years . Report to the Trilateral Commission. The Brookings Institution, Newe York, NY 1997, ISBN 0-930503-76-7 .
  • Hans Leyendecker: The Lies of the White House. Why America needs a fresh start. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-498-03920-2 .
  • James Mann: Rise of the Vulcans . The History of Bush's War Cabinet. Viking Books, New York, NY 2004, ISBN 0-670-03299-9 .
  • Adam Curtis: The Power of Nightmares , BBC, London 2004.

Web links

Commons : Paul Wolfowitz  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Paul Wolfowitz  - Quotes

swell

  1. ↑ newamericancentury.org ( Memento from September 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Michael Lüders: "Who sows the wind ... What western politics does in the Orient", published in 2015 by CH Beck
  3. ↑ Michael Lüders: Whoever sows the wind ... What western politics does in the Orient , video of the tele-academy of a lecture at the German-American Institute in Heidelberg .
  4. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Tohuwabohu after a Techtelmechtel April 10, 2007
  5. ^ Spiegel Online : Corruption - Wolfowitz loses all support April 12, 2007
  6. ^ Spiegel Online : World Bank President Wolfowitz resigns May 18, 2007
  7. ↑ Paul Wolfowitz - Visiting Scholar ( Memento from October 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Wolfowitz, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolfowitz, Paul Dundes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician, President of the World Bank
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York