(Reuters) - The controversy over World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, under fire for overseeing a high-paying promotion for his girlfriend, has roots in a long career in which he played a role in U.S. Cold War policy and two wars with Iraq.

The 63-year-old Wolfowitz has publicly protested that he should be judged not for his prior role at the Pentagon, where he was a chief architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but for the efforts he has led at the World Bank to alleviate poverty.

Here are some key facts about Wolfowitz's life and career:

EARLY CAREER

-- A political science PhD from the University of Chicago, Wolfowitz was hired under the Nixon administration to work on arms control and nonproliferation issues in the 1970s. In 1977, under Democratic President Jimmy Carter, Wolfowitz moved to the Pentagon, where he stayed until 1980.

-- He was among a group of academics and analysts known as "neoconservatives" who became disillusioned with Carter's foreign policy and advocated a more assertive stance, particularly with regard to the Soviet Union.

-- He held senior positions at the State Department in the Reagan administration before serving as ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989.

SENIOR OFFICIAL IN TWO BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS

-- Under President George H.W. Bush, when current Vice President Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, Wolfowitz served as under secretary of defense for policy, helping raise money from allies to help finance the 1991 Gulf War.

-- Out of political favor during the Clinton administration, Wolfowitz spent 1993 to 2001 as dean of Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, a graduate school in Washington.

-- After George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, Wolfowitz returned to government, serving from 2001 to 2005 as deputy defense secretary under Donald Rumsfeld. He was a strong advocate for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and said its oil revenues would finance post-war reconstruction "relatively soon."

AT THE WORLD BANK

-- Wolfowitz was nominated in January 2005 to take over the World Bank from retiring President James Wolfensohn. European governments that opposed the Iraq war had misgivings about the choice, but did not stop his appointment.

-- He took over on June 1, 2005, pursuing a rigorous campaign against corruption in developing countries, the main recipients of World Bank money.

-- He drew charges of hypocrisy earlier this year when it was disclosed he had helped arrange a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza. On April 12 he conceded, "I made a mistake, for which I am sorry."

-- World Bank member governments expressed "great concern" at the situation and one of his two deputies, bank veteran Graeme Wheeler, told Wolfowitz that he should resign for the bank's well-being.

-- Wolfowitz resisted calls to quit and tried to rally support. The White House said it had full confidence in him and urged people to await a review by the bank's board of whether Wolfowitz broke any rules.

AlertNet news is provided by