IN THE JOCKEYING FOR PLUM positions that followed President George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, then­U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick set his sights on the presidency of the World Bank, which was about to become vacant on the retirement of James Wolfensohn. A veteran of Washington's foreign and economic policy establishment, Zoellick had spent four years advocating free trade as a powerful tool to promote development and combat the frustration that feeds terrorism, so running the Bank -- the world's leading development agency -- seemed a fitting capstone to his career. There was just one snag: Bush decided to dispatch Zoellick to the State Department as deputy to newly named secretary Condoleezza Rice and to award the Bank job to Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy Defense secretary and an architect of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Today Zoellick and the Bank are getting a second chance. The renowned policy wonk...