Look up columbia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Columbia may refer to:

Places[link]

• British Columbia, Canada
• Columbia (name), a poetic name for the Americas, and the feminine personification of the United States of America
• District of Columbia, the federal district in which the capital of the United States is located
• Columbia (supercontinent)
• Columbia River, in Canada and the United States
• Columbia City (disambiguation)
• Columbia County (disambiguation)
• Columbia Island (disambiguation), in New York and the District of Columbia
• Columbia Mall (disambiguation)
• Columbia Township (disambiguation)
• Columbia (electoral district), a provincial electoral district in British Columbia
• Columbia, San Diego, California, a neighborhood
• 327 Columbia, an asteroid
• Camp Columbia, a United States Army post in Australia during World War II

Towns and cities in the United States[link]

• Columbia, Alabama
• Columbia, California
• Columbia, Connecticut
• Columbia, Illinois
• Columbia, Fayette County, Indiana
• Columbia, Iowa
• Columbia, Kentucky
• Columbia, Louisiana
• Columbia, Maine
• Columbia, Maryland
• Columbia, Mississippi
• Columbia, Missouri
  • Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Area
• Columbia, New Hampshire
• Columbia, New Jersey
• Columbia, New York
• Columbia, North Carolina
• Columbia, Pennsylvania
• Columbia, South Carolina, the largest city on this list.
  • Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Area
• Columbia, South Dakota
• Columbia, Tennessee
• Columbia, Virginia
• Columbia, Wisconsin
• Columbia, former name of Romney, Indiana
• Columbia, former name of Etna, New York

Companies[link]

Music and entertainment[link]

• Columbia Records, an American record label founded in 1888, now owned by Sony Music Entertainment
  • Columbia Symphony Orchestra, a former part of the Columbia Records company
• Columbia Graphophone Company, a now-defunct British record company and label
• Columbia Music Entertainment, a Japanese record company
• Columbia Pictures
  • Columbia Pictures Television
    • CBS Columbia Square, in Hollywood, California, West Coast home of CBS radio and television
    • Columbia TriStar Television
• Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS radio and television networks
  • Columbia Artists Management

Other[link]

• Columbia Aircraft, taken over by Cessna
• Columbia Aircraft Corp, originally Columbia Air Liners Inc.
• Columbia Bicycles of Hartford, Connecticut
  • Columbia Automobile Company (1899–1913), originally expanded from the bicycle line
• Columbia Brewery in Canada
• Columbia Comics
• Columbia Data Products
• Columbia Forest Products
• Columbia Games
• Columbia Gas Transmission, a gas pipeline between the U.S. Gulf Coast and New York
• Columbia Helicopters, based in Aurora, Oregon
• Columbia Industries
• Columbia Insurance Group
• Columbia Management Group
• Columbia Motors of Detroit, Michigan (1917–1924)
• Columbia Power Corporation, Canada
• Columbia Railway, historic Washington, D.C. streetcar company
• Columbia Sportswear, formerly the Columbia Hat Company
  • Team Columbia, a professional cycling team sponsored by Columbia Sportswear
• Columbia Transit, bus company serving Columbia, Missouri
• Columbia University Press, affiliated with Columbia University and publisher of Columbia Encyclopedia

Music[link]

• "Columbia", a song on the 1994 Oasis album Definitely Maybe
• "Columbia", a song by Paul van Dyk on the 2000 album Out There and Back
• "Columbia", a song on Bloom
• Columbia: Live at Missouri University, a 1993 live album by American power pop group Big Star
• "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean", an American patriotic song
• "Hail, Columbia", an American patriotic song and unofficial national anthem until 1931

People[link]

• Al Columbia, American artist, writer and cartoonist
• Columbia Lancaster (1803–1893), a delegate from the Territory of Washington
• Columbia, a fictional character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Schools[link]

• Columbia University, New York City
• Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina
• Columbia College (disambiguation)
• Columbia Bible College (Abbotsford, British Columbia)
• Columbia Theological Seminary, formerly in Columbia, now in Decatur, Georgia
• Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City
• Columbia High School (disambiguation)
• Columbia Independent School, Columbia, Missouri
• Columbia Middle School in Grovetown, Georgia
• Columbia University, a former name of the University of Portland

School districts[link]

• Columbia Elementary School District, Redding, California
• Columbia School District (Mississippi)
• Columbia Public Schools, Columbia, Missouri

Transportation[link]

Ships[link]

• Columbia (Arrow Lakes sternwheeler)
• Columbia (barque), in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River and Pacific Northwest coast
• USS Columbia, any of several ships of the US Navy
• Columbia class cruiser, a group of two protected cruisers used by the United States Navy, 1890–91
• CSS Columbia, a Confederate (and later U.S. Navy) ironclad ram during the Civil War
• HMCS Columbia, any of several commissioned vessels of the Canadian Navy
• Lightship Columbia, the first lightship on the Pacific coast of the United States, docked in Astoria, Oregon
• MV Columbia, a large passenger and automobile ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet
• SS Columbia, a historic excursion steamer docked in Ecorse, Michigan, United States
• Columbia Rediviva, a ship under Captain Robert Gray, best known for going to the Pacific Northwest of America

Winners of the America's Cup[link]

• Columbia (1871 yacht), the 1871 America's Cup winner
• Columbia (1899 yacht), the 1899 and 1901 America's Cup winner
• Columbia (1958 yacht), the 1958 America's Cup winner

Other[link]

• Space Shuttle Columbia
  • Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
• Columbia, the Command/Service Module for the Apollo 11 mission
• Columbia JL, a large amphibian aircraft built only as three prototypes
• Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia, the airplane piloted by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin, the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic
• Columbia, another name for the 2-4-2 classification of steam locomotives, named for an early locomotive of this type called Columbia

In fiction[link]

• Columbia (Star Trek), a fictional starship in the series Star Trek: Enterprise
• Columbia, a fictional battlestar from both versions of the Battlestar Galactica TV series

Publications[link]

• Columbia Encyclopedia, one-volume encyclopedia published by Columbia University Press
• Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, annual literary journal founded in 1977 and published by Columbia University

Other uses[link]

• Columbia (sheep), an American breed of sheep
• Columbia (supercomputer), named for the space shuttle
• Columbia Carousel, carousels in amusement parks
• Columbia Lions, the athletic program of Columbia University
• Sailing Ship Columbia, a themed ride at Disneyland in California
• Columbia (BioShock), a fictional location in the video game BioShock Infinite

See also[link]

• All pages with titles containing "Columbia"
• Colombia (disambiguation)
• Colombian (disambiguation)
• Colombiana (disambiguation)
• Columba (disambiguation)
• Columbiad, a type of large-caliber cannon from the 19th century
• Columbian (disambiguation)
• Columbiana (disambiguation)
• Columbus (disambiguation)
• Saint Columba
• Saint Columbanus
• Columbium, former name for the element Niobium

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Jeffrey Sachs

Sachs at Brasilia, Brazil 2005
Born	(1954-11-05) November 5, 1954 (age 57) Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	United States
Institution	Columbia University
Field	Political economics, International Development
Alma mater	Harvard University
Opposed	William Easterly, Dambisa Moyo
Influences	John Maynard Keynes[1][2]
Influenced	Nouriel Roubini, Peter Diamond
Contributions	Millennium Villages Project

Jeffrey David Sachs (/ˈsæks/; born November 5, 1954, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American economist and Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. One of the youngest economics professors in the history of Harvard University, Sachs became known for his role as an adviser to Eastern European and developing country governments during the transition from communism to a market system or during periods of economic crisis. Subsequently he has been known for his work on the challenges of economic development, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, debt cancellation, and globalization.

Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's School of Public Health. He is Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the United Nations Millennium Project's work on the Millennium Development Goals, eight internationally sanctioned objectives to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, and disease by the year 2015. Since 2010 he has also served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, which leverages broadband technologies as a key enabler for social and economic development.^[3]

Sachs has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). He has been named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" twice, in 2004 and 2005.

Biography[link]

Academic career[link]

Sachs was raised in Oak Park, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Oak Park High School. He attended Harvard College, where he received his B.A. summa cum laude in 1976. He went on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, and was invited to join the Harvard Society of Fellows while still a Harvard graduate student. In 1980, he joined the Harvard faculty as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982. A year later, at the age of 28, Sachs became a Full Professor of economics with tenure at Harvard.

During the next 19 years at Harvard, he became the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade, the Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development at the Kennedy School of Government (1995–1999), and the Director of the Center for International Development (1999–2002).

In 2002, Sachs left Harvard to become the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. At Columbia he is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and is also a professor in Columbia's Department of Economics and the Department of Health Policy and Management. His classes are taught at the School of International and Public Affairs and the Mailman School of Public Health, and his course "Challenges of Sustainable Development" is taught at the undergraduate level.

In his capacity as Director of the Earth Institute, he leads a university-wide organization of more than 850 professionals from natural-science and social-science disciplines, in support of sustainable development. Sachs has consistently advocated for the expansion of University education on sustainable development, and helped to introduce the PhD in Sustainable Development at Columbia University, one of the first PhD programs of its kind in the U.S. He championed the new Masters of Development Practice (MDP), which has led to a consortium of major universities around the world offering the new degree. The Earth Institute has also guided the adoption of sustainable development as a new major at Columbia College. The Earth Institute is home to cutting-edge research on all aspects of earth systems and sustainable development.

Sachs’ policy and academic works span the challenges of globalization, and include: the relationship of trade and economic growth; the resource curse and extractive industries; public health and economic development; economic geography; strategies of economic reform; international financial markets; macroeconomic policy; global competitiveness; climate change; and the end of poverty. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of scholarly articles and several books, including three bestsellers and a textbook on macroeconomics that is widely used around the world.

Advising in Latin America and post-communist economies[link]

Sachs is known for his work as an economic adviser to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. A trained macroeconomist, he advised a number of national governments in the transition from communism to market economies.

In 1985, Bolivia was undergoing hyperinflation and was unable to pay back its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sachs, an economic adviser to the Bolivian government at the time, drew up an extensive plan, later known as shock therapy, to cut inflation drastically by liberalizing the Bolivian market, ending government subsidies, eliminating import quotas, and linking the Bolivian economy to the US dollar. After Sachs's plan was implemented, inflation fell from 11,750% to 15% per year from 1985 to 1987.^[4]

In 1989, Professor Sachs advised Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity movement and the first post-communist Government of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He wrote the first-ever comprehensive plan for the transition from central planning to a market democracy, which became incorporated into Poland’s highly successful reform program led by Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz. Professor Sachs was the main architect of Poland’s successful debt reduction operation. Sachs and ex-IMF economist David Lipton advised the rapid conversion of all property and assets from public to private ownership. In Poland, Sachs was firmly on the side of rapid transition to "normal" capitalism. At first he proposed US-style corporate structures, with professional managers answering to many shareholders and a large economic role for stock markets. That did not fly with the Polish authorities, but he then proposed that large blocks of the shares of privatized companies be placed in the hands of private banks.^[5] As a result, there were some economic shortages and inflation, but prices in Poland eventually stabilized.^[6] The Government of Poland awarded Sachs with one of its highest honors in 1999, the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit. He also received an honorary doctorate from the Cracow University of Economics.

Sachs’s ideas and methods of transition from central planning were successfully adopted throughout the transition economies. He helped Slovenia (1991) and Estonia (1992) to introduce new stable and convertible currencies. Based on Poland’s success, he was invited first by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and then by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the transition to a market economy. He served as advisor to Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar and Finance Minister Boris Federov during 1991-93 on macroeconomic policies. He received the Leontief Medal of the Leontief Centre, St. Petersburg, for his contributions to Russia’s economic reforms.

Work on global economic development[link]

More recently, Sachs has turned to global issues of economic development, poverty alleviation, health and aid policy, and environmental sustainability. He has written extensively on climate change, disease control, and globalization, and is one of the world's leading experts on the fight against poverty and sustainable development.^[7]

Since 1995, Professor Sachs has been deeply engaged in Africa’s escape from poverty. He has worked in more than two-dozen African countries, and has advised the African leadership at several African Union summits. In the mid-1990s he worked with senior officials of the Clinton Administration to develop the concept of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). He has engaged with dozens of African leaders to promote smallholder agriculture and to fight high disease burdens through strengthened primary health systems. His pioneering ideas on investing in health to break the poverty trap have been widely applied throughout the continent. He currently serves as an advisor to several African governments, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, among others.

In his 2005 work, The End of Poverty, Sachs wrote "Africa's governance is poor because Africa is poor." According to Sachs, with the right policies and key interventions, extreme poverty — defined as living on less than $1 a day — can be eradicated within 20 years. India and China serve as examples, with the latter lifting 300 million people out of extreme poverty during the last two decades. Sachs believes a key element to accomplishing this is raising aid from $65 billion in 2002 to $195 billion a year by 2015. He emphasizes the role of geography and climate, with much of Africa suffering from being landlocked and disease-prone. However, he stresses that these problems can be overcome.^[8]

Sachs suggests that with improved seeds, irrigation, and fertilizer, the crop yields in Africa and other places with subsistence farming can be increased from 1 ton/hectare to 3-5 tons/hectares. He reasons that increased harvests would significantly increase the income of subsistence farmers, thereby reducing poverty. Sachs does not believe that increased aid is the only solution. He also supports establishing credit and microloan programs, which are often lacking in impoverished areas.^[9] Sachs has also advocated the distribution of free insecticide-treated bed nets to combat malaria. The economic impact of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa US$12 billion per year. Sachs estimates that malaria can be controlled for US$3 billion per year, thus suggesting that anti-Malaria projects would be an economically justified investment.^[10]

From 2002 to 2006, Sachs was the Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to then Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs founded the Millennium Villages Project, a plan dedicated to ending extreme poverty in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa through targeted agricultural, medical, and educational interventions. Along with philanthropist Ray Chambers, Sachs founded Millennium Promise, a nonprofit organization, to help the Earth Institute fund and operate the Millennium Villages Project.

The Millennium Villages Project, which he directs, operates in more than one dozen African countries, and covers more than 500,000 people. The MVP has achieved notable successes in raising agricultural production, reducing children’s stunting, and cutting child mortality rates, with the results described in several peer-reviewed publications. Its key concepts of integrated rural development to achieve the MDGs are now being applied at national scale in Nigeria and Mali, and are being used by many other countries to help support national anti-poverty programs. He works very closely with the Islamic Development Bank to scale up programs of integrated rural development and sustainable agriculture among the Bank’s member countries. One such project supports pastoralist communities in the Horn of Africa, with six participating nations: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan.

Since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, Professor Sachs has been the leading academic scholar and practitioner on the MDGs. He chaired the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2000-1), which played a pivotal role in scaling up the financing of health care and disease control in the low-income countries to support MDGs 4, 5, and 6. He worked with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000-1 to design and launch the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He worked closely with senior officials of the administration of George W. Bush to develop the PEPFAR program to fight HIV/AIDS, and the PMI to fight malaria. On behalf of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from 2002-2006 he chaired the UN Millennium Project, which was tasked with developing a concrete action plan to achieve the MDGs. The UN General Assembly adopted the key recommendations of the UN Millennium Project at a special session in September 2005. The recommendations for rural Africa are currently being implemented and documented in the Millennium Villages, and in several national scale-up efforts such as in Nigeria.

Now a Special Adviser to current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Sachs is still a leading advocate for the Millennium Development Goals, frequently meeting with foreign dignitaries and heads of state. He has also become a close friend of international celebrities Bono and Angelina Jolie, both of whom have traveled to Africa with Sachs to witness the progress of the Millennium Villages.^[11]

Sachs has been a consistent critic of the IMF and its policies around the world. He has blasted the international bankers for what he sees as a pattern of ineffective investment strategies.^[12]

Criticisms[link]

One of Sachs's strongest critics is William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University. Easterly reproached The End of Poverty in his review for The Washington Post, and Easterly's 2006 book White Man's Burden is an even more thorough rebuttal of Sachs's argument that poor countries are stuck in a "poverty trap" from which there is no escape except by massively scaled-up foreign aid, though Sachs himself has clearly emphasized the need for a complex, multifaceted, clinical and unique approach to economic development, of which increased and responsible foreign aid is nearly always a necessary but insufficient part.^[13] Easterly presents statistical evidence that he claims proves that many emerging markets attained their higher status without the large amounts of foreign aid Sachs proposes.^[14] Other evidence is included in Easterly's previous work, The Elusive Quest for Growth.

Another Sachs critic is Amir Attaran, a scientist and lawyer who holds the Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development at the University of Ottawa. Sachs and Attaran have worked closely as colleagues, coauthoring a famous study in The Lancet documenting the dearth of foreign aid money to fight HIV/AIDS in the 1990s, which led to the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But Sachs and Attaran part company in their opinion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and Attaran argued in a paper published in PLoS Medicine and an editorial in the New York Times that the United Nations has misled people by setting specific, but immeasurable, targets for the MDGs (for example, to reduce maternal mortality or malaria).^[15] Sachs dismissed that view in a reply to PLoS Medicine, saying that only a handful of the MDGs are immeasurable, but Attaran then cited the United Nations' own data analysis (which the UN subsequently blocked from public access) showing that progress on a very large majority of the MDGs is never measured.^[16]

Sachs has also been criticized by leftists for having an overly neoliberal perspective on the economy. Nancy Holmstrom and Richard Smith pointed out that, in advising implementation of his shock therapy on the collapsing Soviet Union, Sachs "supposed the transition to capitalism would be a natural, virtually automatic economic process: start by abandoning state planning, free up prices, promote private competition with state-owned industry, and sell off state industry as fast as possible…". They go on to cite the drastic decreases in industrial output over the ensuing years, a near halving of the country's GDP and of personal incomes, a doubling of the suicide rate, and a skyrocketing unemployment rate.^[17] The Lancet^[18] has recently reported that rapid privatization of the Soviet Union caused a 12.8% death rate increase among males in just two years,^[19] a claim that The Economist attributed to alcoholism, though The Lancet article attributed the rise in alcoholism to changes in the economy.^[20]

Accolades and affiliations[link]

Sachs has received many awards and honors. In 2004 and 2005, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine. He was also named one of the "500 Most Influential People in the Field of Foreign Policy" by the World Affairs Councils of America.^[21]

In February 2002, Nature Magazine stated that Sachs "has revitalized public health thinking since he brought his financial mind to it." In 1993 he was cited in the New York Times Magazine as "probably the most important economist in the world." In 1994, Time Magazine called him "the world's best-known economist." In 1997, the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur cited Sachs as one of the world's 50 most important leaders on globalization.^[22]

In 2005, he received the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. In 2007, Sachs was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honor bestowed by the Government of India. Also in 2007, he received the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution International Advocate for Peace Award as well as the Centennial Medal from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to society.^[22]

From 2000 to 2001, Sachs was Chairman of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization, and from 1999 to 2000 he served as a member of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission established by the U.S. Congress. Sachs has been an adviser to the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations Development Program. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Harvard Society of Fellows; the Fellows of the World Econometric Society; the Brookings Panel of Economists; the National Bureau of Economic Research; and the Board of Advisers of the Chinese Economists Society, among other international organizations.^[22]

Sachs has received honorary degrees from Connecticut College; Lehigh University; Pace University; the State University of New York; Cracow University of Economics; Ursinus College; Whitman College; the Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Ohio Wesleyan University; the College of the Atlantic; Southern Methodist University; Simon Fraser University; McGill University; Southern New Hampshire University; St. John's University; Iona College; University of St. Gallen in Switzerland; the Lingnan College of Hong Kong; and the University of Economics Varna in Bulgaria.^[22]

Sachs is first holder of the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair in Poverty Studies at the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2007-09. In addition, he holds an honorary professorship at the Universidad del Pacifico in Peru. He has lectured at the London School of Economics, the University of Oxford, and Yale University, as well as in Tel Aviv and Jakarta.^[22]

In early 2007, the Sachs for President Draft Committee was formed to encourage Sachs to run for President of the United States in the 2008 election.^[23]

In September 2008, Vanity Fair magazine ranked Sachs 98th on its list of 100 members of the New Establishment.

In July 2009, Sachs became a member of the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation's International Advisory Board.^[24]

In 2009, Princeton University's American Whig-Cliosophic Society awarded Symington the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service.^[25]

In May 2012, Bryant University awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Publications[link]

Sachs is the author of hundreds of academic articles and many books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Penguin, 2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Penguin, 2008), and The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity (Random House, 2011).

He writes a monthly foreign affairs column for Project Syndicate, a nonprofit association of newspapers around the world that is circulated in 145 countries.^[26] He is also a frequent contributor to such major publications as the Financial Times, Scientific American, Time Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Selected works[link]

• Sachs, Jeffrey (October 4, 2011). The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity Random House ISBN 978-1-4000-6841-8
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2008). Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet Penguin Press HC ISBN 978-1-59420-127-1
• Humphreys, Macartan, Sachs, Jeffrey, and Stiglitz, Joseph (eds.). "Escaping the Resource Curse" Columbia University Press ISBN 978-0-231-14196-3
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time Penguin Press HC ISBN 1-59420-045-9
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2003). Macroeconomics in the Global Economy Westview Press ISBN 0-631-22004-6
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2002). A New Global Effort to Control Malaria (Science), Vol. 298, October 4, 2002
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2002). Resolving the Debt Crisis of Low-Income Countries (Brookings Papers on Economic Activity), 2002:1
• Sachs, Jeffrey (2001). The Strategic Significance of Global Inequality (The Washington Quarterly), Vol. 24, No. 3, Summer 2001
• Sachs, Jeffrey (1997). Development Economics Blackwell Publishers ISBN 0-8133-3314-8
• Sachs, Jeffrey and Pistor, Katharina. (1997). The Rule of Law and Economic Reform in Russia (John M. Olin Critical Issues Series (Paper)) Westview Press ISBN 0-8133-3314-8
• Sachs, Jeffrey (1994). Poland's Jump to the Market Economy (Lionel Robbins Lectures) MIT Press ISBN 0-262-69174-4
• Sachs, Jeffrey (1993). Macroeconomics in the Global Economy Prentice Hall ISBN 0-13-102252-0
• Sachs, Jeffrey (ed) (1991). Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 1 : The International Financial System (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report) University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-73332-7
• Sachs, Jeffrey and Warwick McKibbin Global Linkages: Macroeconomic Interdependence and Co-operation in the World Economy, Brookings Institution, June, 277 pages. (ISBN 0-8157-5600-3)
• Sachs, Jeffrey (ed) (1989). Developing Country Debt and the World Economy (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report) University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-73338-6
• Bruno, Michael and Sachs, Jeffrey (1984), "Stagflation in the World Economy"

Personal[link]

Sachs lives in New York City with his wife Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, a pediatrician. They have three children: Lisa, Adam, and Hannah Sachs.

See also[link]

Sustainable development portal

• Gro Harlem Brundtland

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jeffrey Sachs

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (November 2009)

Official[link]

• Official website
• Earth Institute at Columbia University

Other[link]

• Column archive at The Guardian (since 2002)
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jeffrey Sachs on Charlie Rose
• Jeffrey Sachs at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Jeffrey Sachs in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jeffrey Sachs collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• A Bridge for the Carmakers (Washington Post, 2008-11-16).
• Podcast, University of Sydney, Economics for a Crowded Planet Public lecture, Sydney Ideas, July 14, 2008
• Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, on BUniverse, Boston University's video lecture archive.
• Jeffrey Sach's Reith lectures hosted by the Royal Society in London, during April and May 2007
• Article on Jeff Sachs in the Yale Economic Review
• Interview on PBS' Commanding Heights
• Interview on The Colbert Report, March 2006
• Economics for a Crowded Planet (video)
• Audio/Video recording of Jeffrey Sachs lecture as part of the University of Chicago World Beyond the Headlines series.
• Sachs addresses Harvard Law students in the Harvard Law Record
• Asia Society Video: Jeffrey Sachs on Water Security Issues in Asia April 17, 2009
• Jeffrey Sachs Speaker Biography on the World Business Forum where Sachs is a featured speaker for the 2009 event
• Audio: Jeffrey Sachs in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show The Forum
• Bio from Leigh Bureau

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad محمود احمدی‌نژاد
6th President of Iran
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 August 2005
Vice President	Parviz Davoodi Mohammad-Reza Rahimi
Supreme Leader	Ali Khamenei
Preceded by	Mohammad Khatami
Mayor of Tehran
In office 20 June 2003 – 3 August 2005
Deputy	Ali Saeedlou
Preceded by	Mohammad-Hassan Malekmadani
Succeeded by	Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf
Governor of Ardabil
In office 1 May 1993 – 28 June 1997
Preceded by	Hossein Taheri (East Azerbaijan)
Succeeded by	Javad Negarandeh
Personal details
Born	(1956-10-28) 28 October 1956 (age 55) Aradan, Iran
Political party	Alliance of Builders (2003–present)
Other political affiliations	Islamic Society of Engineers (1990–2005)
Spouse(s)	Azam Farahi (1981–present)[1]
Children	Mehdi Alireza Fatemeh
Residence	Sa'dabad Palace (Official) Gisha (Private)
Alma mater	Iran University of Science and Technology
Profession	Civil engineer
Religion	Usuli Twelver Shia Islam
Signature
Website	Official website

This article contains Persian text, written from right to left with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined letters written left-to-right, instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Persian script.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدی‌نژاد‎, Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād [mæhˈmuːd(-e) æhmædiːneˈʒɒːd] ( listen),^[2][3][4] English: /ɑːkməˈdɪnɨʒɒd/; born 28 October 1956^[5][6]) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background,^[7] Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity^[8] after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching.^[9] Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003.^[10] He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors.^[11] His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005.^[12][13] His second presidency term ends on August 3, 2013. He is not eligible to run for another term under the current Iranian constitution.

Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure both within Iran and internationally. He has been criticized domestically for his economic lapses and disregard for human rights. He launched a gas rationing plan in 2007 to reduce the country's fuel consumption, and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge.^[14][15][16] He supports Iran's nuclear energy program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed^[17][18] and caused widespread protests domestically and drew significant international criticism.^[19]

Early life[link]

Ahmadinejad was born near Garmsar in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province. His father, Ahmad, was an ironworker, grocer, barber, blacksmith and religious Shi'a who taught the Qur'an.^[20] His mother, Khanom, was a Seyyede, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.^[20] Ahmadinejad's father changed his name from "Saborjhian"^[21] or "Sabaghian"^[22] when Ahmadinejad was four years old to avoid discrimination when the family moved to Tehran, as the rural name indicated a lowly social standing. Sabor is Persian for thread painter,^[23] a once common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejad was chosen as it means from the race of Ahmad, one of the names given to Muhammad.

In 1976, Ahmadinejad took Iran's national university entrance contests. According to his autobiography, he was ranked 132nd out of 400,000 participants that year,^[24] and soon enrolled in the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. He earned his PhD (1997) in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology, located at Tehran, when he was the Mayor of Ardabil Province, located at the north-west of the country.

Supporters of Ahmadinejad consider him a "simple man" who leads a "modest" life.^[25] As president, he wanted to continue living in the same house in Tehran his family had been living in, until his security advisers insisted that he move. Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets. He is said to have refused the V.I.P. seat on the Presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead.^[9][26] Also upon gaining Iran's presidency, Ahmadinejad held his first cabinet meeting in the Imam Reza shrine at Mashhad, an act perceived as "pious".^[27]

Administrative and academic careers[link]

Some details of Ahmadinejad's life during the 1980s are not publicly known, but it is known that he held a number of administrative posts in the province of West Azerbaijan, Iran.^[9]

Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, Ahmadinejad joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution^[10] and served in their intelligence and security apparatus,^[10] but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi says "He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards", having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.^[28]

Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986. He joined the faculty there as a lecturer in 1989,^[7][29] and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.^[7][10]

Embassy siege[link]

Shortly after being elected president, some western media outlets published claims that Ahmadinejad was among the students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran, sparking the Iran hostage crisis. This claim has been denied by the Iranian government, the Iranian opposition as well as a CIA investigation on the matter.

Early political career[link]

After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity,^[8] an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the budding Mojahedin-e Khalq.^[8]

He first took political office as unelected governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s.^[10] He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years.^[7][29] During his doctoral studies at Tehran, he was appointed governor general of Ardabil Province from 1993 until Mohammad Khatami removed him in 1997 ^[29] when he returned to teaching.^[10]

Mayor of Tehran[link]

In 2003, a 12 percent turnout elected conservative candidates from the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran to the City Council of Tehran.^[7] The Council appointed Ahmadinejad mayor.^[10]

As mayor, he reversed changes made by previous moderate and reformist mayors. He put religious emphasis on the activities of cultural centres they had founded, publicised the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices,^[11] and suggested that people killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. He also worked to improve the traffic system and put an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.

After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad's resignation as the Mayor of Tehran was accepted on 28 June 2005. After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was one of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005, selected from 550 nominees, only nine of them from Asia.^[30] He was among three strong candidates for the top ten list, but his resignation made him ineligible.^[30]

Presidency[link]

2005 campaign[link]

Ahmadinejad was not widely known when he entered the presidential election campaign as he had never run for office before, (he had only been mayor of Tehran for two years and had been appointed not elected^[31]), although he had already made his mark in Tehran for rolling back earlier reforms. He was/is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key political support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (Abadgaran or Developers).^[32] He was also helped by support from supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who some described Ahmadinejad as a "protege" of.^[33]

Ahmadinejad generally sent mixed signals about his plans for his presidency, perhaps to attract both religious conservatives and the lower economic classes.^[34] His campaign slogan was: "It's possible and we can do it".^[35]

In the campaign, he took a populist approach. He emphasized his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's second president. Ahmadinejad said he planned to create an "exemplary government for the people of the world" in Iran. He was a "principlist", acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals was "putting the petroleum income on people's tables", meaning Iran's oil profits would be distributed among the poor.^[36]

Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States. He told Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the United Nations was "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam."^[37] He opposed the veto power of the UN Security Council's five permanent members: "It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege." He defended Iran's nuclear program and accused "a few arrogant powers" of trying to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields.

In his second round campaign, he said, "We didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government....This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government." He spoke of an extended program using trade to improve foreign relations, and called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "people should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours."^[35]

Ahmadinejad described Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom as his ideological and spiritual mentor. Mesbah founded the Haghani School of thought in Iran. He and his team strongly supported Ahmadinejad's 2005 presidential campaign.^[38]

2005 election[link]

Ahmadinejad won 62 percent of the vote in the run-off poll against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his presidency on 3 August 2005.^[12][13] Ahmedinejad kissed Khamenei's hand during the ceremony to show his loyalty.^[39][40]

2005 cabinet appointments[link]

Iran's President is constitutionally obliged to obtain confirmation from the parliament for his selection of ministers.^[42] Ahmadinejad presented a short-list at a private meeting on 5 August, and his final list on 14 August. The Majlis rejected all of his cabinet candidates for the oil portfolio and objected to the appointment of his allies in senior government office.^[36] The Majlis approved a cabinet on 24 August.^[43] The ministers promised to meet frequently outside Tehran and held their first meeting on 25 August in Mashhad, with four empty seats for the unapproved nominees.^[44]

2006 Councils and Assembly of Experts election[link]

Ahmadinejad’s team lost the 2006 city council elections,^[45] and his spiritual mentor, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was ranked sixth on the country's Assembly of Experts.^{[citation needed]} In the first nationwide election since Ahmadinejad became President, his allies failed to dominate election returns for the Assembly of Experts and local councils. Results, with a turnout of about 60%, suggested a voter shift toward more moderate policies. According to an editorial in the Kargozaran independent daily newspaper, "The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support.. moderate figures." An Iranian political analyst said that "this is a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah Yazdi's list."^[45]

2009 presidential election[link]

Ahmadinejad in Yekaterinburg, Russia, 16 June 2009

On 23 August 2008, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced that he "sees Ahmadinejad as president in the next five years," a comment interpreted as indicating support for Ahmadinejad's reelection.^[46] 39,165,191 ballots were cast in the election on 12 June 2009, according to Iran's election headquarters. Ahmadinejad won 24,527,516 votes, (62.63%). In second place, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, won 13,216,411 (33.75%) of the votes.^[47] The election drew unprecedented public interest in Iran.

2012 parliamentary elections[link]

Ahmadinejad suffered a defeat in March/May 2012 parliamentary elections with Ayatollah Khamenei’s "Principalist" allies winning about three quarters of the parliaments 290 seats, and Ahmadinejad supporters far fewer.^[48]

2009 Iranian election protests[link]

As of April 2011^[update], the election results remain in dispute with both Mousavi and Ahmadinejad and their respective supporters who believe that electoral fraud occurred during the election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad as President on 3 August 2009, and Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on 5 August 2009.^[49] Iran's Constitution stipulates term limits of two terms for the office of President.^[50] Several Iranian political figures appeared to avoid the ceremony. Former presidents Mohammad Khatami, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is currently head of the Expediency Discernment Council, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, did not attend the ceremony.^[51] Opposition groups asked protesters on reformist websites and blogs to launch new street demonstrations on the day of the inauguration ceremony.^[52] On inauguration day, hundreds of riot police met opposition protesters outside parliament. After taking the oath of office, which was broadcast live on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said that he will "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution".^[49] France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States announced that they would not send the usual letters of congratulation.^[49]

2009 cabinet appointments[link]

Ahmadinejad announced controversial ministerial appointments for his second term. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was briefly appointed as first vice president, but opposed by a number of Majlis members and by the intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i. Mashaei followed orders to resign. Ahmadinejad then appointed Mashaei as chief of staff, and fired Mohseni-Eje'i.^[53]

On July 26, 2009, Ahmadinejad's government faced a legal problem after he sacked four ministers. Iran's constitution (Article 136) stipulates that, if more than half of its members are replaced, the cabinet may not meet or act before the Majlis approves the revised membership.^[54] The Vice Chairman of the Majlis announced that no cabinet meetings or decisions would be legal, pending such a re-approval.^[55]

The main list of 21 cabinet appointments was announced on August 19, 2009.^[56] On September 4, Majlis approved 18 of the 21 candidates, and rejected three, including two women. Sousan Keshavarz, Mohammad Aliabadi, and Fatemeh Ajorlou were not approved by Majlis for the Ministries of Education, Energy, and Welfare and Social Security respectively. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi is the first woman approved by Majlis as a minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran.^[57]

Domestic policy[link]

Economic policy[link]

In Ahmadinejad's first four years as president, Iran's real GDP reflected growth of the economy. Inflation and unemployment have also decreased under Ahmadinejad due to better economic management and ending the unsustainable spending and borrowing patterns of previous administrations .^[58][59] Ahmadinejad has increased spending by 25 percent and has supported subsidies for food and petrol. He also initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of public transportation system, the government will free up petrol prices after five years.^[60] Interest rates were cut by presidential decree to below the inflation rate. One unintended effect of this stimulation of the economy has been the bidding up of some urban real estate prices by two or three times their pre-Ahmadinejad value by Iranians seeking to invest surplus cash and finding few other safe opportunities. The resulting increase in the cost of housing has hurt poorer, non-property owning Iranians, the putative beneficiaries of Ahmadinejad's populist policies.^[61] The Management and Planning Organisation, a state body charged with mapping out long-term economic and budget strategy, was broken up and its experienced managers were fired.^[62]

In June 2006, 50 Iranian economists wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad that criticized his price interventions to stabilize prices of goods, cement, government services, and his decree issued by the High Labor Council and the Ministry of Labor that proposed an increase of workers' salaries by 40 percent. Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations.^[63][64] Ahmadinejad has called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and socialism. Current political conflicts with the United States have caused the central bank to fear increased capital flight due to global isolation. These factors have prevented an improvement of infrastructure and capital influx, despite high economic potential.^[58] Among those that did not vote for him in the first election, only 3.5 percent said they would consider voting for him in the next election.^[65] Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a member of Iranian parliament that campaigned for Ahmadinejad, said that his government "has been strong on populist slogans, but weak on achievement."^[66] President Ahmadinejad has changed almost all of his economic ministers, including oil, industry and economy, since coming to power in 2005. In an interview with Fars News Agency on April 2008, Davoud Danesh Jaafari who acted as minister of economy in President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, harshly criticized Ahmadinejad’s economic policy: "During my time, there was no positive attitude towards previous experiences or experienced people and there was no plan for the future. Peripheral issues which were not of dire importance to the nation were given priority. Most of the scientific economic concepts like the effect of liquidity on inflation were put in question."^[67] In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad accused his minister of not being "a man of justice" and declared that the solution to Iran’s economic problem is "the culture of martyrdom".^[68] In May 2008, the Petroleum minister of Iran admitted that the government illegally invested 2 billion dollars to import petrol in 2007. At Iranian parliament, he also mentioned that he simply followed the president's order.^[69][70]

While his government had 275 thousand billion toman oil income, the highest in Iranian history, Ahmadinejad’s government had the highest budget deficit since the Iranian revolution.^[71]

During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption. He also instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge.^[14][15][72] He issued a directive that the Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government.^[73] In May 2011 Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.^[74]

Family planning and population policy[link]

In October 2006, Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing birth control policies, which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children. He told MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million. In November 2010 he urged Iranians to marry and reproduce earlier, "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17."^[75] His remarks have drawn criticism and been called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at around 11 percent. Ahmadinejad’s call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The policy increased Iran's population by 16 million in seven years^[76] but was eventually reversed in response to the resultant economic strain.^[77]

In 2008, the government sent the "Family Protection Bill" to the Iranian parliament. Women's rights activists criticized the bill for removing protections from women, such as the requirement that a husband obtain his wife's consent before bringing another wife into the family. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.^[78]

Housing[link]

The first legislation to emerge from his newly formed government was a 12 trillion rial (US$1.3 billion) fund called "Reza's Compassion Fund",^[79] named after Shi'a Imam Ali al-Rida. Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes.^[80] The fund also sought charitable donations, with a board of trustees in each of Iran's 30 provinces. The legislation was a response to the cost of urban housing, which is pushing up the national average marital age (currently around 25 years for women and 28 years for men). In 2006 the Iranian parliament rejected the fund. However, Ahmadinejad ordered the administrative council to execute the plan.^[81]

Human rights[link]

Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia University

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Since President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin Prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."^[82] Again according to Human Rights Watch, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." Human Rights Watch described the source of human rights violations in contemporary Iran as coming from the Judiciary, accountable to Ali Khamenei, and from members directly appointed by Ahmadinejad.

Responses to dissent have varied. Human Rights Watch writes that "the Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings." In December 2006, Ahmadinejad advised officials not to disturb students who engaged in a protest during a speech of his at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran,^[83][84] although speakers at other protests have included among their complaints that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.^[85]

In April 2007, the Tehran police, which is under Khamenei's supervision, began a crackdown on women with "improper hijab." This led to criticism from associates of Ahmadinejad.^[86]

In 2012, Ahmadinejad claimed that AIDS was created by the West in order to weaken poorer countries, and repeated a previous claim that homosexual Iranians did not exist.^[87]

Universities[link]

In 2006, the Ahmadinejad ^[88] government reportedly forced numerous Iranian scientists and university professors to resign or to retire. It has been referred to as "second cultural revolution".^[89][90] The policy has been said to replace old professors with younger ones.^[91] Some university professors received letters indicating their early retirement unexpectedly.^[92] In November 2006, 53 university professors had to retire from Iran University of Science and Technology.^[93]

In 2006, Ahmadinejad's government applied a 50 percent quota for male students and 50 percent for female students in the university entrance exam for medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. The plan was supposed to stop the growing presence of female students in the universities. In a response to critics, Iranian minister of health and medical education, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani argued that there are not enough facilities such as dormitories for female students. Masoud Salehi, president of Zahedan University said that presence of women generates some problems with transportation. Also, Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of Babol University of Medical Sciences, stated that an increase in the presence of women will make it difficult to distribute facilities in a suitable manner. Bagher Larijani, the president of Tehran University of Medical Sciences made similar remarks. According to Rooz Online, the quotas lack a legal foundation and are justified as support for "family" and "religion."

December 2006 student protest[link]

On 11 December 2006, some students disrupted a speech by Ahmadinejad at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in Tehran. According to the Iranian Student News Agency, students set fire to photographs of Ahmadinejad and threw firecrackers. The protesters also chanted "death to the dictator." It was the first major public protest against Ahmadinejad since his election. In a statement carried on the students' Web site,^{[citation needed]} they announced that they had been protesting the growing political pressure under Ahmadinejad, also accusing him of corruption, mismanagement, and discrimination. The statement added that "the students showed that despite vast propaganda, the president has not been able to deceive academia." It was also reported that some students were angry about the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.^[94]

In response to the students' slogans, the president said: "We have been standing up to dictatorship so that no one will dare to establish dictatorship in a millennium even in the name of freedom. Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the US and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator."^[95] It was reported that even though the protesters broke the TV cameras and threw hand-made bombs at Ahmadinejad,^[96] the president asked the officials not to question or disturb the protesters.^[97][98] In his blog, Ahmadinejad described his reaction to the incident as "a feeling of joy" because of the freedom that people enjoyed after the revolution.^[99]

One thousand students also protested the day before to denounce the increased pressure on the reformist groups at the university. One week prior, more than two thousand students protested at Tehran University on the country's annual student day, with speakers saying that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.^[94][100]

Nuclear program[link]

Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion."^[101][102] He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those that want to solve all problems by the use of force.^[103] In a 2008 interview Ahmadinejad elaborated that countries striving to obtain nuclear weapons are not politically progressive nations and those who possess them and continually make new generations of such bombs are "even more backward".^[104]

In April 2006, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully refined uranium to a stage suitable for the nuclear fuel cycle. In a speech to students and academics in Mashhad, he was quoted as saying that Iran's conditions had changed completely as it had become a nuclear state and could talk to other states from that stand.^[105] On 13 April 2006, Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the peaceful Iranian nuclear technology would not pose a threat to any party because "we want peace and stability and we will not cause injustice to anyone and at the same time we will not submit to injustice."^[106] Nevertheless, Iran's nuclear policy under Ahmadinejad's administration has received much criticism, spearheaded by the United States and Israel. The accusations include that Iran is striving to obtain nuclear arms and developing long-range firing capabilities—and that Ahmadinejad issued an order to keep UN inspectors from freely visiting the nation's nuclear facilities and viewing their designs, in defiance of an IAEA resolution.^{[107][108][109][110]} Following a May 2009 test launch of a long-range missile, Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling the crowd that with its nuclear program, Iran was sending the West a message that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is running the show."^[111]

Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005.^[112] Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue.^[113]

Ahmadinejad vowed on February 2008, that Iran will not be held back from developing its peaceful nuclear program^[114] and has stated that at least 16 different peaceful uses for nuclear technology have so far been identified.^[104] Ahmadinejad has stressed the importance of the right to peaceful nuclear development. Iranian opposition leader, Mousavi, has even stated that giving up the country's nuclear program would be "irreparable" and that the Iranian people support the nuclear program. "No one in Iran will accept suspension," Mousavi has said, adding that if elected, his policy would be to work to provide "guarantees" that Tehran's nuclear activities would never divert to non-peaceful aims.^[115]

In October 2009 the United States, France and Russia proposed a U.N.-drafted deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, in an effort to find a compromise between Iran's stated need for a nuclear reactor and the concerns of those who are worried that Iran harbors a secret intent on developing a nuclear weapon. After some delay in responding, on October 29, Ahmadinejad seemed to change his tone towards the deal. "We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate," he said in a live broadcast on state television.^[116] However, he added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.^[117]

Domestic criticism and controversies[link]

Alleged corruption[link]

Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials," while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism". Many of his close associates have been appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" have been awarded to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated.^[118]

Other statements[link]

Participants of the second Caspian Summit. From left to right: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In June 2007, Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that [can] save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war.^[119][120]

Conservative MP Rafat Bayat has accused Ahmadinejad for a decline in observance of the required hijab for women, calling him "not that strict on this issue".^[121] Ahmadinejad has been also accused of indecency by people close to Rafsanjani,^[122] after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.^[123]

The UN and football stadiums[link]

Two statements that have brought criticism from some religious authorities concern his speech at the United Nations, and the attendance of women at football matches. In a visit to group of Ayatollahs in Qom after returning from his 2005 speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. According to at least one source (Hooman Majd), this was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi.^[124]

In another statement the next year, Ahmadinejad proclaimed (without consulting the clerics beforehand), that women be allowed into football stadiums to watch male football clubs compete. This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007.^[124]

Iran constitution conflict[link]

In 2008, a serious conflict emerged between the Iranian President and the head of parliament over three laws approved by Iranian parliament: "the agreement for civil and criminal legal cooperation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan", "the agreement to support mutual investment between Iran and Kuwait", and "the law for registration of industrial designs and trademarks". The conflict was so serious that the Iranian leader stepped in to resolve the conflict. Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for an "inexplicable act" in bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper.^[125] President Ahmadinejad accused the head of parliament of violating Iranian constitutional law. He called for legal action against the Parliament speaker.^[126][127] Haddad-Adel responded to Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.^[128]

Ali Kordan[link]

In August 2008, Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appointed Ali Kordan as Iran's interior minister. Kordan's appointment has been criticized by Iranian parliamentarians, media and analysts after it came to light that a doctoral degree allegedly awarded to Ali Kordan was fabricated, and that the putative issuer of the degree, Oxford University, had no record of Ali Kordan receiving any degree from the University.^[129] It was also revealed that he had been jailed in 1978 for moral charges.^[130][131] Fabrication of legal documents is punishable in Iranian law with one to three years of imprisonment and in the case of government officials, the maximum sentence (three years) is demanded.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2008, President Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Ali Kordan by Iranian parliament. He refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day.^[132] Ali Kordan was expelled from Iranian interior ministry by Iranian parliament on 4 November 2008. 188 MPs voted against Ali Kordan. An impeachment of Kordan would push Ahmadinejad close to having to submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament, which is led by one of his chief political opponents. Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Ahmadinejad has replaced nine of 21.^{[133] [134]}

Conflict with Parliament[link]

On February 2009 after Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hasn't been returned by the government to the national treasury,^[135][136] Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, called for further investigations to make sure the missing funds are returned to the treasury as soon as possible.^[137] Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government.^[138] The head of the parliament Energy Commission, Hamidreza Katouzian, reported: The government spent $5 billion to import fuel, about $2 billion more than the sum parliament had authorized. Katouzian quoted Iran's Oil Minister, Gholam-Hossein Nozari, as saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered the extra purchase.^[139]

In May 2011 several members of parliament threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ahmadinejad after his merger of eight government ministries and the firing of three ministers without parliament’s consent. According to the Majles News Web site, MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar stated, "legal purging starts with questions, which lead to warnings and end with impeachment." On May 25 parliament voted to investigate another allegation, that Ahmadinejad had committed election irregularities by giving cash to up to nine million Iranians before the 2009 presidential elections. The vote came within hours after the allegations appeared in several popular conservative news sites associated with supreme leader Ali Khamenei, suggesting the supreme leader supported the investigation.^[140] The disputes were seen as part of the clash between Ahmadinejad and other conservatives and former supporters, including supreme leader Khamenei, over what the conservatives see as Ahmadinejad's confrontational policies and abuse of power.^[140][141]

Relations with Supreme Leader[link]

Early in his presidency, Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,^[142] and even as being his "protege."^[143] In Ahmadinejad's 2005 inauguration the supreme leader allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and cheeks in what was called "a sign of closeness and loyalty,"^[144] and after the 2009 election fully endorsed Ahmadinejad against protesters.^[145] However as early as January 2008 signs of disagreement between the two men developed over domestic policies,^[142] and by 2010-11 several sources detected a "growing rift" between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.^[146] The disagreement has been described as centering on Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad^[147] and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics",^[148] who was First Vice President of Iran until being ordered to resign from the cabinet by the supreme leader. In 2009 Ahmadinejad dismissed Intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, an opponent of Mashaei. In April 2011, another Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, resigned after being asked to by Ahmadinejad, but was reinstated by the supreme leader^[143] within hours.^[149] Ahmadinejad declined to officially back Moslehi's reinstatement for two weeks and in protest engaged in an "11-day walkout" of cabinet meetings, religious ceremonies, and other official functions.^[146][149] Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader.^[147] Conservative opponents in parliament launched an "impeachment drive" against him,^[148] four websites with ties to Ahmadinejad reportedly were "filtered and blocked",^[143] and several people "said to be close" to the president and Mashaei (such as Abbas Amirifar and Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh) were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking djinns.^[146] On 6 May 2011 it was reported that Ahmadinejad had been given an ultimatum to accept the leader's intervention or resign,^[150] and on 8 May he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting.^[147] The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president has denied that there was any rift between the two,^[147] and according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency stated that his relationship with the supreme leader "is that of a father and a son."^[148]

Foreign relations[link]

Ahmadinejad with leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Ahmadinejad meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Tehran

During Ahmadinejad's tenure as President of Iran the foreign policy of the country took a different approach from the previous administration. Relations with the West generally soured while relations with other parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America, were on the ascendance. In light of the calls for sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons programme, Ahmadinejad and his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, traveled extensively throughout the two regions, as well as hosted other leaders. Relations with the ALBA states, and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in particular, were most strengthened. Relations with America during the Bush administration and Israel were weakened.

Ahmadinejad is an outspoken critic of the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom.^[151][152]

Israel and Palestine[link]

He abides by Iran's long-standing policy of refusing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state.^[153]

He was embroiled in controversy regarding statements he made about the Holocaust and for commenting that "the occupying regime" would, according to various translations, be eliminated, or "vanish from the pages of time." The New York Times reported this as a call for the destruction of the State of Israel when the phrase was translated as "wiped off the map" by Ahmadinejad's official website and Iranian state run media.^{[154][155][156]} However, American academic Juan Cole says the word "map" doesn't appear in the original Farsi quote. It has also been claimed that he said that "Israel's regime will be wiped off the map", not the actual state.^[157] On April 21, 2012, Dan Meridor, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, was reported by the Blaze ^[158] saying that President Ahmadinejad did not use the exact phrase ’Wiped off the Map’.

He advocates "free elections" for the region, and believes Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future.^[159] Criticism of him in the West has been coupled with accusations of describing the Holocaust as a myth^[160][161] and of statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas,"^[162] which has led to accusations of anti-Semitism,^[163] though he has denied these accusations, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust.^{[152][164][165][166]}

On Quds Day in September 2010 criticized the Palestinian Authority over its president's decision to renew direct peace talks with Israel saying the talks are "stillborn" and "doomed to fail", urging the Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel.^[167][168] He said that Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.^[169][170] Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, fired back, saying, Ahmadinejad "does not represent the Iranian people,..., is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine"^[171][172]

United States[link]

In September 2010 he caused yet-another controversy at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly by claiming that most people believed the United States government was behind the 9/11 attacks and later called for an inquiry, stating: "The fact-finding mission can shed light on who the perpetrators were, who is al-Qaeda... where does it exist? Who was it backed by and supported? All these should come to light."^[173] The speech triggered a mass walkout, and the U.S. president Barack Obama described the claims as "inexcuseable", "offensive" and "hateful".^[174] In 2010, Ahmadinejad reiterated the 9/11 conspiracy, and wrote:

"Establishing an independent and impartial committee of investigation, which would determine the roots and causes of the regrettable event of 9/11, is the demand of all the peoples of the region and the world. [...] Any opposition to this legal and human demand means that 9/11 was premeditated in order to achieve the goals of occupation and of confrontation with the nations.^[175]

He made similar comments in 2011.^[176]

.^[177]

Personal life[link]

He was married to Azam Sadat Farahi on 12 June 1981 in Tehran.^[178] Farahi was a classmate of Ahmadinejad when he studied at the Iran University of Science and Technology. They have three children, including one daughter, Fatemeh, and two sons, Mehdi and Alireza.^[179] His older son, Mehdi, married the daughter of Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2007, and his younger son, Alireza, is married to the niece of former military general, Mahmoud Kaveh.^[180] All of his children studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic).^[181] His son in law is Mehdi Khorshidi.^[182]

See also[link]

	Iran portal
	Biography portal

• 2006 Iranian sumptuary law controversy
• Advisors to the president: Hamid Mowlana, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, Ali Akbar Javanfekr
• Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi
• Politics of Iran

References[link]