Reply #39

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/will-the-world-bank-turn-into-an-election-year-fight/2012/02/15/gIQA6un6FR_blog.html

Now that Robert Zoellick has announced he’ll step down as head of the World Bank when his term ends in June, the question is who will replace him? Historically, the top spot at the World Bank, which provides infrastructure loans to developing countries, has gone to an American. Recently, however, countries like China, India, and Brazil have been pushing to change that.

So will the Obama administration push for yet another American — rumored names include Hillary Clinton or Larry Summers — or open the process up? Nancy Birdsall wonders:

But then there is the political reality: can the Obama White House in an election year, facing a Congress suspicious of a globally honored president, eschew pushing through its own American candidate? … The election year timing puts the White House in an especially unenviable position. There is a risk that the World Bank could become a highly partisan, U.S. hot-button issue, as the UN has too often been.