President Bush nominated Paul Wolfowitz, a leading proponent of the Iraq war, to be the next president of the World Bank, calling the deputy defense secretary a "compassionate, decent man" committed to the institution's development mission.
The World Bank board traditionally defers to the U.S., the largest shareholder in the 184-nation institution, when it comes to the presidency. But Mr. Wolfowitz has been such a lightning rod for criticism around the world that he could meet unusual resistance.
In Germany, the government's development minister said "the enthusiasm in 'old Europe' is not exactly overwhelming," invoking a phrase used by Mr. Wolfowitz's boss, Donald Rumsfeld, to dismiss concerns of Germany and France. Jeffrey Sachs, a top adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said "it's time for other candidates to come forward that have experience in development," though he stressed he was speaking for himself.
The nomination drew a blistering response from many large nongovernmental organizations that have worked increasingly closely with the World Bank in recent years. "There's not much in his résumé about reducing poverty — it's a lot about militarism," said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an antihunger advocacy group.
Mr. Wolfowitz, in remarks to reporters, said: "I believe deeply in the mission of the World Bank. It is not just poor people who benefit when poverty is reduced: We all do."
Mr. Wolfowitz is the second prominent hawk tapped by Mr. Bush this month for a major multilateral institution, following the nomination last week of State Department official John Bolton to be U.N. ambassador. The combination appears to signal that the White House is serious about its calls for change in those organizations.
The nomination is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's 1967 appointment of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to run the World Bank during the height of the Vietnam War. If he is approved during the bank's annual spring meeting in April in Washington, Mr. Wolfowitz, 61 years old, would succeed James Wolfensohn, who is stepping down June 1 after a second five-year term as president. At a news conference yesterday, Mr. Bush praised Mr. Wolfowitz's experience as a diplomat and his service at the Pentagon. Among other things, Mr. Wolfowitz served as assistant secretary of State for East Asia during the Philippine transition to democracy. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia. "He's a man of good experience," Mr. Bush said.
The nomination — which comes two weeks after the Pentagon said Mr. Wolfowitz had withdrawn his name from consideration — also paves the way for the Bush administration's first high-level shake-up of the Defense Department, and could set the stage for a successor to Mr. Rumsfeld, who is expected to retire at some point in the next couple of years.
Pentagon insiders say it is likely Mr. Rumsfeld would choose a deputy who could help impose more discipline on the department and oversee a review under way of how the military needs to change to meet threats.
The most likely pick appears to be Navy Secretary Gordon England, a former defense-industry executive who has built a good relationship with the president and Congress. Earlier this year, Mr. Rumsfeld suggested that the White House nominate Mr. England to be secretary of the Air Force, which has been wracked by scandal. Mr. England has told friends he hoped the job would be a stepping-stone to the deputy's job in the Pentagon. Another possible candidate is Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
Leading the World Bank, which employs about 10,000 around the world, is a huge management and political challenge. The U.S. is the bank's largest shareholder, and controls 16% of the vote on the board. The bank lends more than $20 billion a year, but its role in the developing world goes far beyond providing economic assistance. Shortly after a tsunami swept through the Indian Ocean in late December, the World Bank pledged $250 million in emergency aid for hard-hit countries and began playing a central role in organizing relief efforts.
Mr. Wolfowitz is in many ways a good fit with the job. He has pushed the military to assume a broader role in the world both to spread democracy and respond to humanitarian disasters. This year he flew to Asia to observe tsunami-relief efforts and at one point helped to carry bags of U.S.-donated food. With almost no fanfare he regularly attends a weekly dinner for soldiers wounded in Iraq, held at a Washington restaurant.
The bank has periodically been the target of both the Left and the Right. Protesters have attacked it for funding dams, pipelines, power plants and mines that opponents consider socially and environmentally destructive. Republicans in Congress have questioned whether the bank's loans achieve their stated ends or are instead a waste of money that supports corrupt borrowing governments.
Mr. Bush yesterday made a point of praising Mr. Wolfowitz's administrative experience, saying "he helped manage a larger organization."
Yet inside the U.S. military, Mr. Wolfowitz is widely viewed as an ineffective day-to-day manager who has had trouble getting the department to run smoothly. Instead of riding herd over the Pentagon's bureaucracy, he carved a role unlike almost any previous deputy defense secretary. Typically, the job is an administrative one focused on overseeing important weapons programs and insuring that decisions reflect the secretary's agenda. Mr. Wolfowitz never embraced that role. Instead, he focused much of his energy on helping craft the Bush administration's pre- and post-invasion Iraq policy, pushing to turn power over to the Iraqi people more rapidly.
The Wolfowitz nomination comes at time of disagreement between the U.S. and Great Britain over development strategies. A British official emphasized that the United Kingdom is seeking a World Bank president who will support Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to increase assistance and debt relief for the developing world.
—Marc Champion in London, Andres Cala in Paris, and Marcus Walker in Frankfurt contributed to this article.
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