[stop-imf] The Wolfowitz Coup

[Robert Weissman]

The Wolfowitz Coup
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Although many thought it was a cruel practical joke when Paul
Wolfowitz's name was first floated to head the World Bank, this was no
April Fool's prank: Last Thursday, the executive directors of the World Bank
approved the key architect of the Iraq war as president of what is
supposed to be the world's largest development agency.

For decades, the World Bank has veered out of control with a
corporate-led development model. The Bank has pushed mega-development
projects that have displaced millions of people, failed to improve
national well-being and thrown countries into a downward debt spiral.
Simultaneously, it has pushed market fundamentalist policies -- including
blind support for privatization, deregulation, and marketization and
commodification of social services and public goods -- that have
benefited multinational corporations, but impoverished hundreds of millions.

Periodically, the Bank acknowledges its past failures -- devastatingly
obvious upon objective review of its record -- and promises to start
anew. With each renewal, however, the institution manages to repeat the
mistakes of the previous era, yet again.

If the Bank is going to continue to exist, it does need a new start, but
not the kind that Paul Wolfowitz's nomination portends.

Wolfowitz assumes the presidency of the Bank thanks to colonialist
tradition and craven geopolitical calculation.

By tradition, but for no conceivably justifiable reason and without any
legal requirement, the United States picks the head of the Bank.
Sneering at the rest of the world, the Bush administration chose a man
who symbolizes U.S. unilateralism and contempt for the rule of law.

Although tradition says the rest of the world accedes to the U.S.
choice, Europe does have the votes to block a U.S. selection, and
organized opposition from developing countries would have made it very
hard for the Wolfowitz nomination to succeed.

But Europe wasn't willing to force a confrontation with the United
States -- it being perfectly clear that the Bush administration knew how
distasteful the nomination would be in Europe, where there is continuing
and overwhelming opposition to the Iraq war.

Instead, the Europeans opted for horse-trading. France hopes to win U.S.
support for its candidate to run the World Trade Organization. Germany
is seeking a seat on the UN Security Council. And the Europeans
reportedly extracted a commitment for a new number two position at the
Bank, to be reserved for a European.

The developing countries also chose to sit on their hands. There was
some Machiavellian calculation here, too -- Brazil also hopes for a
Security Council seat -- but generally the poor countries had a better
defense for staying quiet. Unlike the Europeans, they actually borrow
from the World Bank and are subject to its dictates, so challenging a
presidential contender, with the likelihood of failing, would be a major
gamble.

While the Europeans cut deals, Wolfowitz quickly launched what all
labeled a "charm offensive." He noted his concern for the poor, and
repeated that he understood the Bank chieftain to be a civil servant
responsible to all nations, not just his friends in the Bush
administration. He added that he understands he will have to tamp down
his zealous advocacy of democracy.

Restrain his fervent commitment to democracy?! Are you serious?

Paul Wolfowitz does not have a record of promoting democracy.

He helped sell the Iraq war to the U.S. public on false pretenses of the
threat of weapons of mass destruction, a major betrayal of democratic
principle.

But it wasn't as if bringing democracy to Iraq was the hidden agenda. In
fact, after occupying Iraq, the United States resisted elections in the
country, until Iraqis forced the United States to accede.

Wolfowitz's allies say he worked to promote democracy and human rights
in Indonesia when he was U.S. ambassador there. But as Northwestern
University Professor and Indonesia expert Jeffrey Winters notes, there
is no available press account of Wolfowitz mentioning democracy or human
rights while ambassador -- but an extensive record of apologetics for
the despotic Suharto regime. Indonesian human rights activists say
Wolfowitz never met with them.

Wolfowitz comes to the World Bank presidency with no relevant
development experience but for his oversight of the reconstruction of
Iraq -- a project beset by corruption, cronyism and incompetence, and
which has failed miserably at delivering water, health, security and
other basic services promised to the Iraqi people.

Everything about Wolfowitz's career, including his time in Indonesia and
overseeing Iraqi reconstruction, suggests he is likely to intensify
rather than reform the failed World Bank corporate-led model of development.

Perhaps the only positive note about his assumption of the Bank
presidency is that he brings a skepticism about the institution's
effectiveness, and perhaps a willingness to shrink its controlling
powers, including by getting poor countries off of the loan treadmill.
(In an endless cycle, loans generally end up requiring more loans to be
repaid -- and so make borrowing countries especially vulnerable to
conditions attached to the provision of subsequent loans. Debt payments
also drain vital financial resources from poor countries, with deadly
consequences.) Wolfowitz has indicated interest in substituting grants
for loans, and, especially if prodded by a mobilized, global civil
society movement, may be ready to embrace full and immediate
cancellation of the debts owed by the world's poor countries.

The first chance to help achieve this long-overdue goal will be at the
protests accompanying the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's
annual meetings, April 16-17 in Washington, D.C. For more information on
these activities, see <www.globalizethis.org>.


Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter, <http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com>. Robert Weissman is
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. Weissman maintains the blog
www.nowaywolfowitz.org, and is a member of the Mobilization for Global
Justice, which is sponsoring the April protests at the World Bank and
IMF meetings. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors of On the Rampage:
Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy (Monroe, Maine:
Common Courage Press, 2005).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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