Paul Wolfowitz. Photograph: Dennis Cook/PA
First John Bolton, now Paul Wolfowitz. A week ago, George Bush raised eyebrows when he nominated Bolton, one of the administration's leading hawks who had little but contempt for international institutions, to be America's ambassador to the UN.
Today another bombshell of a nomination. Bush has named Wolfowitz to succeed James Wolfensohn as president of the World Bank. If anything this is an even more astonishing choice.
Bolton could be said to have some expertise with multilateral institutions. But Wolfowitz, although a highly respected defence intellectual whether you agreed with him or not, would be the last person to claim an in-depth knowledge of development issues.
Peter Bosshard, the policy director of International Rivers Network (IRN), a US development group, expressed shock at the nomination. "The deputy defence secretary's strong support for the Iraq war reflects a disdain for international law and a multilateral approach to conflict resolution that disqualifies Wolfowitz from leading a multilateral institution."
IRN was frequently critical of Wolfensohn, but it is probably missing him already. Alex Wilks at worldbankpresident.org does not mince words either. He thinks think that Wolfowitz "would be a diplomatic disaster at the Bank". For a tongue-in-cheek appraisal of Wolfowitz's nomination, there are these 10 points by John Cavanagh at the left-leaning Institute of Policy Studies in Washington.
Wolfowitz has yet to talk about his nomination, but it would be fascinating to hear why he would want to give up a position of huge power for the one he is about to take up. True, the World Bank stewardship is an influential position, but cannot really compare with being No 2 at one of the world's most powerful organisations, the Pentagon.
We can be sure of one thing. Going to the Bank is not an act of contrition as was the case with Robert McNamara, who was defence secretary when Kennedy and Johnson got bogged down in Vietnam. The former whizz-kid from the Ford motor company who brought his management techniques to the business of war with calamitous consequences, left the Pentagon for the World Bank where he was president from 1968 to 1981.
McNamara's years at the Bank were widely seen as an attempt at redemption after the desperate failure of Vietnam. Wolfowitz, however, harbours no such second thoughts about Iraq. For him the World Bank will be a new forum to blow the trumpet for freedom and democracy around the world.
