News reports say that Bush will announce Robert Zoellick as his nominee for the president of the World Bank. He's a horific choice; we would expect nothing less from Bush. Zoellick's the "pragmatic" neocon, which is to say he's not as incompetent as the rest of the lot. He is a Bush loyalist and a man who believes firmly that the American government should forcefully use every means at its disposable to advance the country's interests, narrowly construed. I'll have more to say later. Here are a few readings/musing to get you started:
The Must Read is this 2000 Foreign Affairs article by Zoellick, "A Republic Foreign Policy," written when he was a foreign policy advisor to Bush's campaign:
His Wikipedia bio, for general background.
A critical but fair article about him from Counterpunch in 2005.
As several articles note, Zoellick is widely thought to be abrasive, temperamental, and a poor manager. He is an Iraq war hawk and one of the original signatories of the Project for the New American Century. He can be counted on to continue Wolfowitz's efforts to ramp up the Bank's doomed operations in Iraq.
There is much support on the Board of the World Bank for an open process and selection of the president on the basis of merit rather than the U.S. administration's whimsy. Australia, South Africa, and Brazil have called for an open process, according to this FT article. And this other article in the FT explains that the Brazilian Executive Director Otaviano Canuto pushed this proposal at a Board meeting on Tuesday, which let to this statement from the EDs. (Canuto, incidentally, is a man of great charm and is popular among both Bank staff and EDs.) According to the NY Times writeup, China, India, and perhaps other countries may put forward their own candidates. So there is still a substantial chance the Board will not accept Zoellick.
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