Paul Wolfowitz
The architect of the doctrine
American primacy and democracy promotion.
Traditional Neo-Conservative (Neocon)One of 729 ideologies · enter the Neo-Conservative (Neocon) hall →- Role
- Defense official
- Era
- b. 1943
- Region
- United States
- Social band
- Traditional
- Placement
- +26 · +30 · −38
§ Where Paul Wolfowitz stands
3 axesWolfowitz is a mainstream market conservative whose career centred on security rather than economics. As president of the World Bank from 2005 to 2007 he made anti-corruption and private-sector-led growth his priorities, suspending lending to Chad in 2006 when it rewrote a law reserving oil revenue for poverty reduction, while also pressing for more aid to Africa.
Wolfowitz favours unrivalled American military power used assertively. The 1992 Defense Planning Guidance draft prepared under him called for blocking the rise of any competitor, and after the September 11 attacks he pressed for action against Iraq. In February 2003 he told Congress that the army chief's estimate of several hundred thousand troops for post-war Iraq was wildly off the mark.
Wolfowitz has said little on domestic culture-war questions; his traditionalism lies in a patriotic, morally confident view of American power and of liberal democracy as a cause worth spreading. It was shaped by teachers such as Allan Bloom at Cornell, later the author of The Closing of the American Mind (1987), who defended the Western philosophical tradition against relativism.
How close are you to Paul Wolfowitz?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingPaul Dundes Wolfowitz (b. 1943) is an American defence strategist and official. The son of the Polish-born statistician Jacob Wolfowitz, he studied mathematics at Cornell and earned a doctorate in political science at the University of Chicago, where the nuclear strategist Albert Wohlstetter was his mentor. He served under presidents of both parties: at the Pentagon under Jimmy Carter, as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and ambassador to Indonesia under Ronald Reagan, and as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under George H. W. Bush.
Wolfowitz became the leading strategist of post-Cold War American primacy. A 1992 Pentagon planning draft produced under his direction, leaked to The New York Times, argued that the United States should prevent any new rival superpower from emerging. As Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005 he was among the strongest advocates of invading Iraq, and he is closely identified with its assumptions about weapons of mass destruction and post-war stability, which proved mistaken. He then led the World Bank, resigning in 2007 amid a dispute over a pay and promotion package for his partner, a bank employee.
Notable for
- 01The 'Wolfowitz Doctrine'
- 02Architect of the Iraq War
- 03Led the World Bank
Key works & moments
- 1986–89Serves as US ambassador to Indonesia under Ronald Reagan.
- 1992A Pentagon draft under his direction calls for preventing the rise of any rival superpower.
- 1994Becomes dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
- 2001Becomes Deputy Secretary of Defense; urges action against Iraq after the September 11 attacks.
- 2003Champions the invasion of Iraq and disputes the army's estimate of post-war troop needs.
- 2005–07Serves as president of the World Bank, resigning amid controversy.
§ Minds closest to Paul Wolfowitz
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§ Also in the Neo-Conservative (Neocon) hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Paul Wolfowitz's political ideology?
Paul Wolfowitz is a neoconservative strategist and the leading theorist of American primacy after the Cold War: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Traditional Neo-Conservative (Neocon). Economically he sits right of centre (+26), a market conservative whose World Bank tenure stressed private-sector growth and anti-corruption. On governance he favours strong, assertive state power abroad (+30), from the 1992 primacy draft to the Iraq War, and socially he leans traditional (−38), with a patriotic, morally confident view of America's role in the world.
Is Paul Wolfowitz left-wing or right-wing?
Right of centre, though his path was not typical. Wolfowitz began his career in the bipartisan world of Cold War arms control and served in Jimmy Carter's Pentagon before rising under Republican presidents. His priorities are military strength and the spread of democracy rather than tax or culture-war battles, which places him on the hawkish, internationalist right; both left-wing critics and realist conservatives have attacked his record on Iraq.
What was the Wolfowitz Doctrine?
It is the name given to a draft of the Pentagon's 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, prepared under Wolfowitz as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and leaked to The New York Times in March 1992. It argued that the first objective of US policy after the Cold War should be to prevent the emergence of any new rival capable of challenging American power in Europe, Asia or the former Soviet Union, acting alone if necessary. The draft was toned down after criticism, but its ideas resurfaced in the Bush administration's 2002 National Security Strategy.
Which minds are closest to Paul Wolfowitz?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Paul Wolfowitz are Charles Krauthammer (99% alike), Jack Ryan (99% alike) and Bill Kristol (98% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (16% alike).