Paul Wolfowitz Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of Paul Wolfowitz, former US deputy secretary of defense and former president of the World Bank.
Personal
Birth date: December 22, 1943
Birth place: New York, New York
Birth name: Paul Dundes Wolfowitz
Father: Jacob Wolfowitz, statistician and professor of mathematics
Mother: Lillian (Dundes) Wolfowitz
Marriage: Clare Selgin (1968-2002, divorced)
Children: Sara Elizabeth, David Samuel and Rachel Dahlia
Education: Cornell University, A.B. in Math, 1965; University of Chicago, M.A. in Political Science, 1967; University of Chicago, Ph.D. in Political Science, 1972
Other Facts
Considered one of the principal architects of the Iraq War.
Timeline
1973-1977 – Works at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in various positions.
1977-1980 – Deputy assistant secretary of defense for regional programs under President Jimmy Carter.
1981-1982 – Head of the policy planning staff at the US State Department.
1983-1986 – Assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
1986-1989 – US ambassador to Indonesia.
1989-1993 – Under secretary of defense for policy for the George H. W. Bush administration.
1994-2001 – Dean and professor of International Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
1996 – Foreign policy strategist for Bob Dole’s presidential campaign.
2001-2005 – US Deputy secretary of defense.
March 16, 2005 – Nominated by President George W. Bush to head the World Bank.
March 31, 2005 – Is unanimously approved as the 10th president of the World Bank.
June 1, 2005-June 30, 2007 – President of the World Bank.
May 2007 – An internal panel concludes Wolfowitz violated staff rules in arranging a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend. The special ad hoc committee looked into allegations Wolfowitz broke conflict of interest rules in dealing with his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, who left the World Bank when Wolfowitz took over the top spot in 2005.
June 30, 2007 – Steps down as president of the World Bank.
July 2, 2007 – Joins American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, as a visiting scholar.
January 2008-September 2009 – Chairman of the secretary of state’s International Security Advisory Board, a panel on arms control and disarmament.
2008-2018 – Chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council.
March 17, 2013 – In a Sunday Times interview, Wolfowitz says that he was not the main architect of the Iraq War. He also concedes that there “should have been Iraqi leadership from the beginning.”
August 27, 2021 – Wolfowitz writes a Wall Street Journal op-ed the day after an explosion takes place outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. He says that the Taliban “enabled” the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and that the “forever war” against the group won’t end with US evacuation.
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