Robert Zoellick

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Zoellick (2008)

Robert Bruce Zoellick [ ˈɹɑːbɚt bɹuːs ˈzɛlɪk ] (born  July 25, 1953 in Naperville , Illinois ) is an American politician ( Republican Party ). He belonged to the governments of the US Presidents George Bush and George W. Bush . Since July 1, 2007 Zoellick was President of the World Bank . His term of office ended at the end of June 2012; he announced in February 2012 that he would then leave office. His successor is the US health expert Jim Yong Kim .

Life

Robert Zoellick was born to William T. and Gladys Zoellick. The family has German ancestors whose roots probably go back to Rostock . He grew up in Naperville with his four year older brother, William (Zoellick Jr.). After graduating from Naperville Central High School in 1971 , he went to Swarthmore College , where he graduated from the Phi Beta Kappa Academic Association in 1975 . He studied law at Harvard Law School and political science at the John F. Kennedy School of Government . In 1981 he completed his studies with a JD (again with the title magna cum laude ) or the MPP ( Master of Public Policy).

Political offices

From 1985 to 1988 Zoellick held various positions in the Ministry of Finance . During the reign of Ronald Reagan he was among other things an advisor to Treasury Secretary James Baker .

Zoellick is also known as a German expert. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , as chief US negotiator in the two-plus-four negotiations, he campaigned for a speedy reunification (US Secretary of State Baker did likewise). For his outstanding commitment to German reunification , he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of the Great Cross of Merit with Star) from the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker in 1992 .

Under James Baker, US Secretary of State 1989-1992, Zoellick was Head of Department of Economic and Rural Affairs ( United States Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs ) and Advisor to the Minister. In August 1992, he became Deputy Chief of Staff ( White House Deputy Chief of Staff ) and personal adviser to the president.

In business

In 1993 he left the civil service and until 1997 was vice president of the mortgage bank " Fannie Mae " (Federal National Mortgage Association) . He then was Professor of National Security at the United States Naval Academy (1997-1998), conducted research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and was an advisor on international agendas for the investment bank Goldman Sachs .

Attitude to Iraq before the war

In 1998 Zoellick, along with Richard Armitage , John R. Bolton , Francis Fukuyama , Robert Kagan , Zalmay Khalilzad , Richard Perle , Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz , was one of the signatories of a letter from the neo-conservative think tank Project for the New American Century to the then president Bill Clinton , who warned of the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and vehemently demanded the disempowerment of Saddam Hussein ( "[...] removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power" ). Five years later, after George W. Bush became president and after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the US administration, now co-signatories, named Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, Wolfowitz as Deputy Secretary, Armitage as Deputy Secretary of State and Perle as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee used the same arguments in their justification for the Iraq war .

In foreign policy

Robert Zoellick with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2006)

During the election campaign for the presidential election in 2000 Zoellick was a member of a group ("The Vulcans") around Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush's adviser on foreign policy. After the election he was a US trade representative in President Bush's cabinet from 2001 to 2005 and was responsible for US international trade policy . In this position he was involved in the negotiations for the accession of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha. He also advocated the creation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement ( Central American Free Trade Agreement , DR-CAFTA on).

On January 7, 2005, the President nominated him as Deputy Foreign Minister under Condoleezza Rice ; on February 22, Zoellick took office in the Foreign Ministry. One focus of his work was a realignment of US policy with regard to China. On June 19, 2006, he announced his resignation and announced that he would return to Goldman Sachs as director and chairman of the international division. According to media reports, this was because George W. Bush did not appoint him to succeed Treasury Secretary John W. Snow , whose term of office ended on July 7, 2006.

Other offices

Zoellick is or was also board member of various companies, including Alliance Capital , Said Holdings , and the Precursor Group , adviser to Enron and Viventures (a risk capital - funds ) and Director of the Strategy Group of the Aspen Institute . Under Defense Secretary William Cohen , he was a member of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee .

Zoellick is also a member of the think tanks Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission . He was also a participant in the Bilderberg Conference nine times (2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011–2015).

World bank

US President George W. Bush proposed Zoellick on May 29, 2007 as the successor to the resigned Paul Wolfowitz for the office of President of the World Bank . On June 25th, the Executive Council of the World Bank unanimously confirmed the election of Zoellick and on July 1st he took office. Robert Zoellick announced his departure on February 15, 2012 after the end of his term of office at the end of June 2012.

Attitude to the German role in the euro crisis

Robert Zoellick lamented Angela Merkel's lack of leadership in the euro crisis and accused the German government of having no vision for the further development of the common currency. "A lot in politics happens in the way of muddling through, but the economy and the markets need orientation and clarity," said Zoellick in an interview with Wirtschaftswoche in early October 2011 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Zoellick  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ spiegel.de February 15, 2012: [1]
  2. ↑ Successor to Zoellick nominated: American Kim becomes the new head of the World Bank ( Memento from April 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, March 16, 2012 (accessed on March 16, 2012).
  3. ↑ Project for the New American Century : Letter on Iraq ( Memento of the original of September 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 26, 1998 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.newamericancentury.org
  4. ^ The Times : Zoellick quits State Department for Goldman , June 19, 2006
  5. ↑ Die Welt : Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick resigns , June 20, 2006
  6. ↑ World Bank boss Zoellick resigns - in: SPIEGEL ONLINE from February 15, 2012
  7. ↑ World Bank boss Zoellick accuses Merkel of muddling through - in: Wirtschaftswoche of October 8, 2011, accessed on October 8, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Zoellick, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zoellick, Robert Bruce (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician (Republican Party)
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Naperville , Illinois