Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943) is an American academic and political figure. Wolfowitz is a polarizing and controversial figure both within the United States and abroad. He is often seen as a leading proponent of the 2003 Iraq War and architect of the ambitious foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration known as the Bush Doctrine. His views are often characterized as representing a modern American philosophy of neoconservatism. He is currently President of the World Bank.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs

In 1977 under U.S. President Jimmy Carter Wolfowitz made the move to the Pentagon to broaden his experience of military issues as, according to Mann, he believed; ?The key to preventing nuclear wars was to stop conventional wars.? Wolfowitz was employed as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs for the U.S. Defense Department under then U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown where he was put to work on the Limited Contingency Study, ordered to examine possible areas of threat to the U.S. in the third world.

Related Topics:
1977 - U.S. President - Jimmy Carter - The Pentagon - U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs - U.S. Defense Department - U.S. Secretary of Defense - Harold Brown - Limited Contingency Study

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One of the first seminars Wolfowitz attended after taking up the post was given by Professor Geoffrey Kemp of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in which it was argued that the U.S. was concentrating too much on defending against the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Europe through the Fulda Gap in Germany and ignoring the far more likely possibility of them turning southward to seize the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. ?This warning struck a chord with Wolfowitz,? according to Mann, as it ?fit well with the conclusion he had just reached in the Team B intelligence review.? Wolfowitz hired Kemp and Dennis Ross a Soviet specialist from the University of California to work with him on preparing the study. ?We and our major industrialized allies have a vital and growing stake in the Persian Gulf region because of our need for Persian Gulf oil and because events in the Persian Gulf affect the Arab-Israeli conflict,? the report stated, going on to conclude that Soviet seizure of the Persian Gulf oil field would ?probably destroy NATO and the US-Japanese alliance without recourse to war by the Soviets.?

Related Topics:
Geoffrey Kemp - Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy - Soviet - Europe - Fulda Gap - Germany - Oil fields - Persian Gulf - Dennis Ross - University of California - Arab-Israeli conflict - NATO

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Wolfowitz then took the study one step further by questioning what would happen if another country in the region were to seize the oil field. He quickly identified that ?Iraq has become the militarily pre-eminent in the Persian Gulf,? which was ?a worrisome development? because of its:

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• Radical-Arab stance
• Anti-Western attitudes
• Dependence on Soviet arms sales
• Willingness to foment trouble in other local nations

The study concluded ?Iraq?s implicit power will cause currently moderate local powers to accommodate themselves to Iraq? and that ?Iraq may in the future use her military forces against such states as Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.? To solve this the US must ?be able to defend the interests of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and ourselves against an Iraqi invasion or show of force,? and make manifest its ?capabilities and commitments to balance Iraq?s power,? requiring ?an increased visibility for U.S. power.? As Mann explains ?Iraq was a subject to which Wolfowitz would return over and over again during his career.?

Related Topics:
Kuwait - Saudi Arabia

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According to Ross ?no one believed that Iraq posed a serious or immanent threat to the Saudis,? but Wolfowitz had told him; ?When you look at contingencies, you don?t focus only on the likelihood of the contingency but also on the severity of its consequences.? Brown felt differently, worried that if the report leaked it would damage U.S. relations with Iraq and destabilize Saudi Arabia, but the study did however have eventual effect. ?The whole thrust of the study? according to Ross, ?was to say that had a big problem, that it would take us a long time to get any significant military force into the area.? The study?s recommendations laid the groundwork for what would become the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), conceived as Rapid Deployment Forces for the Persian Gulf, it would go on to play a key role in the 1991 Gulf War after the study?s prediction apparently came true and the subsequent 2003 invasion of Iraq for which Wolfowitz was a major driving force.

Related Topics:
U.S. Central Command - Rapid Deployment Forces - 1991 Gulf War - 2003 invasion of Iraq

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In late 1979 Jeanne Kirkpatrick began a migration of neoconservatives from their traditional base in the U.S. Democratic Party over to the U.S. Republican Party and its Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. Wolfowitz joined this exodus after receiving a phone call from his old boss Fred Ikle, then working on the Reagan campaign, in which he said ?Paul, you?ve got to get out of there. We want you in the new administration.? A short time later, in early 1980, Wolfowitz resigned from the Pentagon and went to work as a visiting professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.

Related Topics:
1979 - Jeanne Kirkpatrick - Neoconservatives - U.S. Democratic Party - U.S. Republican Party - Presidential candidate - Ronald Reagan - Fred Ikle - 1980 - Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies - Johns Hopkins University

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