'Robert Bruce Zoellick' () (born
July 25,
1953) is the eleventh
president of the
World Bank, a position he has held since
July 1,
2007.
[1] He was previously a
United States Deputy Secretary of State (resigning on
July 7,
2006) and
U.S. Trade Representative, from
February 7,
2001 until
February 22,
2005. He announced his resignation as Deputy Secretary on
June 19,
2006 to join the
investment bank Goldman Sachs as a managing director and chairman of the company's International Advisors department.
[2]
President George W. Bush nominated Zoellick on
May 30,
2007 to replace
Paul Wolfowitz as President of the
World Bank.
[3] On
June 25,
2007, Zoellick was approved by the World Bank's executive board.
["Press Release Regarding the Selection of Mr. Robert B. Zoellick as President of the World Bank", ''World Bank Group'', June 25, 2007, accessed June 26, 2007.]
Background
Zoellick was born in
Naperville,
Illinois, where he was raised, and has
German ancestry.
[4][5][6] The Zoellick family is originally from the German city of
Rostock. He graduated in
1971 from
Naperville Central High School. He graduated
Phi Beta Kappa in
1975 from
Swarthmore College and received his
J.D. from
Harvard Law School and a
Master of Public Policy degree from
Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government in
1981.
[7][8]
In
2002, Zoellick was awarded an honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters from
Saint Joseph's College in
Rensselaer,
Indiana. On
May 30,
2007,
President George W. Bush nominated Zoellick to become president of the
World Bank, with
Paul Wolfowitz formally stepping down on
June 30.
Career
Judicial clerkship (1982–1983)
Upon graduation from
Harvard Law School Zoellick served as a
law clerk for Judge
Patricia Wald on the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Government service (1985–1992)
Zoellick served in various positions at the
Department of the Treasury from
1985 to
1988. He held positions including Counselor to
Secretary James Baker, Executive Secretary of the Department, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy.
During
George H. W. Bush's presidency, Zoellick served with Baker, by then
Secretary of State, as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, as well as Counselor to the Department (Under Secretary rank). In August
1992, Zoellick was appointed
White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President.
[7] Zoellick was also appointed Bush's personal representative for the
G7 Economic Summits in
1991 and 1992.
Business and academia (1993–2001)
After leaving government service, Zoellick was appointed an Executive Vice President at the
Federal National Mortgage Association (
1993–
1997).
[1][2] Zoellick served as the
John M. Olin Professor of National Security at the
U.S. Naval Academy (
1997–
1998), Research Scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Senior International Advisor to
Goldman Sachs.
[8][11]
Zoellick signed the
January 26,
1998 letter
[12] to President
Bill Clinton from
PNAC that advocated
war against
Iraq.
During
1999 Zoellick was, for a short period, the head of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
[13]
In the
2000 U.S. presidential election campaign, Zoellick served as a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush as part of a group, led by
Condoleezza Rice, that called itself
The Vulcans.
U.S. Trade Representative (2001–2005)
Zoellick was named U.S. Trade Representative at the beginning of the younger Bush's first term; he was a member of the
Executive Office, with the rank of Ambassador. According to the U.S. Trade Representative website, Zoellick completed negotiations to bring
China and
Taiwan into the
World Trade Organization (WTO); developed a strategy to launch new global trade negotiations at the WTO meeting in
Doha,
Qatar; shepherded
Congressional action on the
Jordan Free Trade Agreement and the
Vietnam Trade Agreement; and worked with Congress to pass the
Trade Act of
2002, which included new Trade Promotion Authority.
[14] He also heavily promoted the
Central American Free Trade Agreement over the objections of
labor,
environmental, and
human rights groups.
[15]
Zoellick played a key role in the U.S.-W.T.O. dispute against the
European Union over
genetically modified foods. The move sought to force genetically modified crops and food on the E.U., which would not otherwise accept them, or be slow to do so.
[16].
Deputy Secretary of State (2005–2006)
On
January 7,
2005, Bush nominated Zoellick to be
Deputy Secretary of State.
[17] Zoellick assumed the office on
February 22,
2005. The ''
New York Times'' reported on
May 25,
2006 that Zoellick could soon announce his departure. Zoellick agreed to serve as Deputy Secretary of State for not less than one year. He was seen as a major architect of the
Bush administration's policies regarding
China, and also the approach to a
Darfur peace plan.
[18]
During a trip to a
Darfur refugee camp in
2005, Zoellick wore a bracelet with the motto, "Not on our watch." Zoellick was seen by many as the administration's strongest voice on Darfur. His resignation catalyzed groups, such as the
Genocide Intervention Network, to praise his record on human rights issues.
[19]
President of the World Bank (2007-)
Zoellick officially took office as President of the World Bank on
July 1,
2007. His first term is set to expire in
2012.
Other Activities
Zoellick also serves or has served as a board member for a number of private and public organizations: Alliance Capital, Said Holdings, and the Precursor Group; and as a member of the advisory boards of
Enron [20] and Viventures, a venture fund; and a director of the
Aspen Institute's Strategy Group.
He has also served on the board of the
German Marshall Fund and on the
World Wildlife Fund Advisory Council, and was a member of
Secretary William Cohen's
Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee.
He is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations and the
Trilateral Commission.
He also
attended the annual invitation-only conferences of the
Bilderberg Group in
1991,
2003,
2006 and
2007 [21].
Views
Tom Barry, the policy director of the
International Relations Center, has written that Zoellick "regards
free trade philosophy and free trade agreements as instruments of U.S.
national interests. When the principles of free trade affect U.S. short-term interests or even the interests of political constituencies, Zoellick is more a
mercantilist and
unilateralist than free trader or
multilateralist."
[22]
Gavan McCormack has written that Zoellick used his perch as U.S. trade representative to advocate for
Wall Street's policy goals abroad, as during a 2004 intervention in a key
privatization issue in
Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's re-election campaign. McCormack has written , "The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has played an active part in drafting the
Japan Post privatization law. An October 2004 letter from Robert Zoellick to Japan’s Finance Minister Takenaka Heizo, tabled in the
Diet on
August 2,
2005, included a handwritten note from Zoellick commending Takenaka. Challenged to explain this apparent
U.S. government intervention in a domestic matter, Koizumi merely expressed his satisfaction that Takenaka had been befriended by such an important figure… It is hard to overestimate the scale of the opportunity offered to U.S. and global finance capital by the privatization of the
Postal Savings System."
[23]
In a January 2000 ''
Foreign Affairs'' essay entitled "Campaign 2000: A Republican Foreign Policy," he was one of the first of those now associated with Bush's foreign policy to invoke the notion of "
evil," writing: "[T]here is still evil in the world — people who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we face enemies who are hard at work to develop
nuclear,
biological, and
chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them. The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate civilized rules for uncivilized ends." The same essay praises the "
idealism" of
Theodore Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson. Two years earlier, Zoellick was one of the signatories (who also included
Donald Rumsfeld,
Paul Wolfowitz,
Richard Perle,
Elliott Abrams,
Zalmay Khalilzad,
John R. Bolton,
Richard Armitage, and
Bill Kristol) of a
January 26,
1998 letter to President
Bill Clinton drafted by the
Project for the New American Century calling for "removing
Saddam [Hussein]'s regime from power."
[12]
An article written in December 2002 by
Oxfam head of research,
Kevin Watkins, titled ''Trade Hypocrisy: The Problem with Robert Zoellick''
[25], observed:
:Another area of trade policy in which the Bush administration exercises global leadership, superbly captured by the Zoellick manifesto, can be summarised in a single word, `hypocrisy'. Like the British colonialists that attracted the ire of the Boston tea party fraternity, the United States is a good old-fashioned mercantilist power, combining protectionism at home with a commitment to free trade overseas.
While in the position of Deputy Secretary of State, Zoellick visited
Sudan four times. He supported expanding a
United Nations force in the Darfur region to replace
African Union soldiers. He was involved in negotiating a peace accord between the government of Sudan and the
Sudan Liberation Army, signed in
Abuja,
Nigeria in May 2006.
Zoellick is considered an influential advocate of US-German relations, and has very good knowledge of Germany.
References
1. World Bank press release. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21385723~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
2. Reuters (2006). Goldman says Zoellick to be vice chairman, intl. Retrieved June 20, 2006.
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6701865.stm
4. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS; Performing a Free Trade Juggling Act, Offstage Elizabeth Becker
5. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,485569,00.html
6. http://www.ftd.de/koepfe/:Zoellick%20Pr%E4sident%20Weltbank/206038.html
7. http://www.results.gov/leadership/bio_474.html
8. http://www.ustr.gov/about-ustr/ambassador/zoellick.html
9. http://www.results.gov/leadership/bio_474.html
10. http://www.ustr.gov/about-ustr/ambassador/zoellick.html
11. http://www.ustdrc.gov/members/zoellick.html
12. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
13. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB925949376503339161.html?mod=googlewsj
14. http://www.ustr.gov/Who_We_Are/Bios/Biography_of_Ambassador_Robert_B._Zoellick.html
15. http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2006/11/07/719/
16. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUY/is_9_9/ai_98655475
17. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050107-6.html
18. Times Online (2006). Zoellick quits State Department for Goldman. Retrieved June 20, 2006.
19. http://www.genocideintervention.net/about/press/releases/2006/06/19/deputy-secretary-of-state-leader-on-darfur-resigns-post/
20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1758345.stm
21. http://www.bilderberg.org/2007.htm#participant
22. http://www.counterpunch.org/barry01142005.html
23. http://www.newleftreview.org/NLR26901.shtml
24. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
25. http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-7-30-860.jsp
External links
★
State Department biography
★
World Bank biography
★
Zoellick in Zmag
★
"China and America: Power and Responsibility" - An address by Zoellick to the Asia Society Annual Dinner in New York, on February 25, 2004
★
Robert Zoellick's list of federal campaign contributions
★
Zoellick reports, clippings and sources
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