Candidate to Lead World Bank Gets Thumbs Down in Europe
By Charles Hawley, Daryl Lindsey and Ronald Heinemann
George B. Bush on Wednesday nominated the neoconservative Paul D. Wolfowitz as
the next president of the World Bank. But Wolfowitz is seen by many here as a
unilateralist hawk and Europeans are outraged. Analysts across the continent
spend Thursday venting on an appointment widely seen as "the absolutely wrong
decision."
REUTERS
Paul Wolfowitz, Bush's nominee to head up the World Bank, is unloved in
Europe.
The trans-Atlantic Spring didn't last long. It's been a mere three weeks since
United States President George W. Bush swung through Europe distributing smiles
and goodwill like a Fourth of July parade queen throwing candy to the crowds.
He is now, from the perspective of many Europeans, throwing rotten eggs. The
continent is not pleased.
At issue is Bush's Wednesday nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to head up the World
Bank. The news arrived here with the sobering effect of a cold shower, coming
as it did after Bush's apparently short lived charm offensive to improve
relations with Europe. Many in Europe view the current US Deputy Secretary of
Defense as an aggressive hawk and as one of the primary movers and shakers
behind America's highly unpopular decision to go to war in Iraq. He is also
seen as a symbol of the Bush administration's aggressive go-it-alone nature
that has soured trans-Atlantic relations during much of Bush's presidency.
"The enthusiasm (over the nomination) in old Europe is not exactly
overwhelming," said German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul -- a
reference to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's infamous
characterization of anti-Iraq war sentiment as coming from "Old Europe."
Not the only unpopular nomination
The nomination comes on the heels of another unpopular Bush appointment, that
of John R. Bolton as the US ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton has long
been an outspoken critic of the UN -- an institution Europe would like to see
strengthened -- and once said "if the UN secretary building in New York lost 10
stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."
Rumors of a possible Wolfie (as he is called by Bush) nomination have been
circulating for quite some time and his name was even circulated among the
23-member World Bank board several weeks ago. But as recently as March 3, it
appeared that he was out of the running and current World Bank head James
Wolfensohn even went on record as saying that Wolfowitz, 61, was no longer a
candidate.
AP
Wolfowitz is seen by Europeans as one of the primary architects behind
the unpopular US invasion of Iraq.
Still, because of the gentlemen's agreement between Europe and the United
States whereby Europe chooses the head of the International Monetary Fund and
the US picks the World Bank boss, analysts had spent recent weeks pondering who
else Bush might put forward. The informal agreement, combined with the fact
that the US has the most say in the World Bank due to its ownership of more
bank shares than any other nation, makes the eventual approval of the US
nomination a forgone conclusion. The return to a Wolfowitz candidacy has been
greeted with dismay.
"This is a truly terrifying appointment," said Peter Hardstaff, head of policy
for the London-based World Development Movement, an organization committed to
development in the Third World. "Here we've got a man who has a track record of
pursuing US military interventionism and US business interests. It's shocking
that such a person is perceived to be the best person for the job."
Negativity not universal
Barbara Unmuessig from the Heinrich-Boell Foundation, a think tank aligned with
Germany's junior governing coalition partner the Green Party, agreed.
"Wolfowitz's nomination is, in my view, a disastrous decision," she said. "He
has never shown any concern for the Third World. He has a bilateral political
understanding and not the multilateral viewpoint necessary to lead the World
Bank."
For all the shaking of heads on this side of the Atlantic, the negative
reaction was not universal. Most European leaders have remained silent on the
issue on Thursday with the offices of both French President Jacques Chirac and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair saying they have "taken note of this
candidacy." Conservatives in Germany have gone so far as to express support.
The coordinator of security policy for the conservative think tank Konrad
Adenauer Foundation, Karl-Heinz Kamp, even said that Wolfowitz's appointment
could be seen as an olive branch extended to the Europeans.
AP
With the nomination of Wolfowitz, not many people in Europe are in the
mood to kiss Bush this week.
"Bush has removed a personality from the administration who was not exactly
uncontroversial while at the same time remaining loyal to his principle of
rewarding those who have been loyal to him," said Kamp. "The nomination is part
of the President's new strategy of accommodating his allies. In addition to
Wolfowitz, other controversial figures like Bolton and (Undersecretary for
Defense Policy) Douglas Feith, have also left the administration."
Some American observers have also interpreted the nomination of Wolfowitz as
the equivalent of a White House spring cleaning and a move that gives newly
appointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the opportunity to put her stamp
on US foreign policy.
While Europeans are mostly skeptical of Wolfowitz because of his hawkish
record, many are also concerned about what his term at the top of the World
Bank food chain might bring. With recent signs that democracy may be gaining a
foothold in the Middle East, Wolfowitz -- who has long been a staunch,
neoconservative advocate for the American export of democracy -- is seen as
being at the height of his power. What, exactly, that will mean for the future
of the World Bank is a question many here are asking. It's unlikely Wolfowitz
will handle the Washington-based global institution with kid gloves.
He'll talk the talk, but will he walk the walk?
"I am sure he'll come out with the right rhetoric," says Hardstaff. "But his
track record would seem to suggest that the World Bank will be shaped to ensure
that the US domestic and business interests will be served. We can probably
expect to see more vociferous or more committed pursuit of so-called
free-market liberalization and market deregulation which have, unfortunately,
proven to be a disaster in Africa over the past 20 years."
DPA
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul: "European
enthusiasm is not exactly overwhelming.
>From an environmental perspective, Wolfowitz is likewise seen as a poor
>choice. Daniel Mittler, a Berlin-based political advisor to Greenpeace
>International, fears that Wolfowitz, a "known oil man," will not prove to be
>the right leader to move the World Bank away from funding fossil fuel projects
>and toward renewable energies. Stating that the institution's policies can
>influence the entire energy sector, "The World Bank urgently needs to shift
>its funding into renewable energies and away from fossil fuels and Wolfowitz
>is probably the least-qualified person to organize this vital shift which is
>necessary if we are to avoid dangerous climate change."
One final worry that many have centers around the reputation the World Bank
might develop under a Wolfowitz leadership. Because he has little experience in
the field of poverty reduction -- one of the core missions of the World Bank --
and because of Wolfowitz's reputation as a unilateralist and the deeply
divisive role he played in the Iraq war, some feel that his appointment will
mean that the bank will come to be seen as a political instrument of the United
States.
"He's inexperienced in development policy and poverty reduction -- the core
issues of the World Bank," said Jochen Steinhilber, who works on development
issues for Germany's center-left Friedrich Ebert Foundation. "The question
we're asking is what qualifies him for this job at all?"
"I think the unrestrained responses you've seen show that there is going to be
major discord between Europe and the United States over this," he said.
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