Global Policy Forum

By Lesley Wroughton

Paul Wolfowitz is trying to reassure World Bank staff that he has turned his back on the machine of war and has his eyes trained on global development. In an effort to burnish his good name with his skeptical new staff at the World Bank, the former No. 2 at the Defense Department is handing out his e-mail address and inviting them to write to him.

Wolfowitz, 61, officially takes over as president of the World Bank on June 1 and has set up a transition office on the upper floors of the bank with two aides, as he eases himself into the new job. He spent his first week meeting senior staff and has also spontaneously offered to address staff gatherings, expressing a deep respect for the institution and its mission as the globe's biggest funder of development projects.

In one meeting of more than 200 staff, Wolfowitz read out his e-mail address and invited everyone there to write him about what works and what doesn't in the bank, still widely considered sluggish and bureaucratic. While he admitted he might not be able to reply to all e-mails, the gesture seemed clearly intended to allay lingering fears among staff worried he will tarnish the bank's image because of his central role in planning the Iraq war.

According to Harvard professor Ken Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and a World Bank critic, to get off on the right foot, Wolfowitz must quickly show he has uncoupled himself from the White House. "He needs to do something to demonstrate his independence from the Republican administration in the United States," Rogoff told a meeting of economists in Washington on Thursday. "Wolfowitz has to really take on the U.S. administration, early on, if he wants to be effective."

Wolfowitz won approval for the job from the bank's board on March 31, despite the reservations of some member countries over his role in the war. Staff too have expressed misgivings, telling the bank staff association that Wolfowitz's ties to the Bush administration could affect their work in countries that disagree with the U.S. foreign policy agenda. World Bank insiders said Wolfowitz took pains this week to show admiration for the institution, which gives billions of dollars in project money to the world's poorest countries. "He explained his background and said obviously the things we'd heard about him made him sound like an awful person," said one staffer who attended a meeting. Trying to reassure staff that he did not plan sweeping changes, he told them: "Complete change takes a revolutionary and that is not what you've got here."

(With additional reporting by Laura MacInnis)

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.