So it's official now: Paul Wolfowitz, neocon
extraordinaire and one of the principle instigators of
the Iraq war, has been named to head the World Bank.
From that position, one of the most hawkish members of
the Bush administration can wreak economic havoc on
countries he left out of his grand plan to transform
Iraq and the Middle East into zones of peace,
tranquility and advanced American-style capitalism.
Key to his appointment, we're told, is his background in
Asia, where he was the top US diplomat during the Reagan
administration. According to
the Associated Press:
Administration supporters of Wolfowitz said
Wednesday he is suited for the World Bank post and
pointed to his management experiences at the
Pentagon and his diplomatic experience at the State
Department. He had served as assistant secretary of
State for east Asia during the Philippine transition
to democracy. He also serves as U.S. ambassador to
Indonesia.
So what is that record? Well, that's something I've
delved into in detail for numerous publications when
Wolfowitz was first nominated as Deputy Secretary of
Defense back in 2001. I had the great privilege to cover
Wolfowitz when he presided over Asian policy during the
Reagan administration, at a time when the United States,
in the name of anti-communism, provided military and
economic aid to some of the worst tyrants in Asian
history. As I wrote in a lengthy piece in
Foreign Policy in Focus,
Wolfowitz’s career is a textbook example of cold war
politics that focused for nearly 50 years on the
care and feeding of dictators like Suharto, Chun Doo
Hwan in South Korea, and Ferdinand Marcos in the
Philippines. While there were differences in nuance
between presidents, these policies remained
remarkably consistent from administration to
administration. Where Wolfowitz and the Reagan
Republicans departed from the Democrats was in their
public stance toward these unsavory figures.
Wolfowitz was (Richard) Holbrooke’s immediate
successor in the top Asia slot at the State
Department, serving there from 1982 to 1986. For the
next three years he was U.S. ambassador to Jakarta,
and from 1989 to 1993 he was the “principal civilian
responsible for strategy, plans, and policy under
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney,” according to his
official biography. He has remained tightly linked
to Indonesia through his role in the U.S.-Indonesia
Society, a private group funded by the largest U.S.
investors in Indonesia that, behind the veneer of
“cultural exchanges,” pushes for closer ties with
Jakarta. Its past members have also included members
of Indonesia’s intelligence and military forces...
During his tenure in the Reagan and Bush
administrations, Wolfowitz played a key role in
defining U.S. policy toward South Korea and the
Philippines at a time of intense repression and
growing opposition to authoritarian rule.
Like Bush's appointment of John Bolton to represent the
United States at the UN, naming Wolfowitz to run the
World Bank is a jab in the eye of global opinion and an
insult to Asian countries like South Korea that became
democracies in spite of US support for authoritarian
rule. For more on his story, read these pieces I wrote
for The Nation
("A Skewed History of Asia") and
First of the Month
("Asian Fantasies: Paul Wolfowitz's Makeover in the
Times").
