Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitzis a former President of the World Bank, United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, working on issues of international economic development, Africa and public-private partnerships, and chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth22 December 1943
CountryUnited States of America
I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems.
I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.
Islamic State is mainly a direct result of the failure in Syria. That's where IS has grown. That's where IS spread from.
I like globalization; I want to say it works, but it is hard to say that when six hundred million people are slipping backwards.
I'm constantly asking for alternative views on most things that come to me.
It's a very bad thing when people exterminate other people, and people persecute minorities.
One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war.
Every math curriculum in the world is based on the idea of hand-calculating, and most of what you're teaching is how to calculate. And I think the resistance to this is very variable.
The most striking thing is that even before Osama bin Laden was killed, he seemed largely irrelevant to the Arab Spring,
Public action should seek to expand the set of opportunities of those who have the least voice and fewest resources and capabilities.
I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.
Saddam Hussein had nerve gas and used it against his own people, he had used chemical weapons against the Iranians and he almost had a nuclear bomb in 1981 and in 1991. And he had been caught with anthrax in 1995 by the UN inspections after denying that he had it.
The absence of Saddam is a huge weight off the Arab world.
I don't know of a single instance of these Arab freedom fighters holding up pictures of bin Laden. I know many instances of them displaying American flags in Benghazi or painting 'Facebook' on their foreheads in Cairo. The idea of freedom . . . is absolutely contradictory to what bin Laden stood for, which was . . . taking Muslims back to some medieval theocracy and encouraging people to die not for freedom but to go to paradise and to kill innocent people along the way. The contrast is really striking.