Shuffle - John R. Bolton Senior Fellow John R. Bolton

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will remain the greatest physical threat to America's security. The greatest political threat is to representative governments like ours, and whether they will prevail in defending individual liberty and their own national security, or whether they will sink into the miasma of "global governance" and bureaucratic control.

These issues converge when deciding how to prevent proliferation, whether by states or terrorists. Shall we engage in endless negotiations in international fora, and trust to pieces of paper to protect us, or shall we unapologetically pursue safety for America and its allies through all means necessary, including pre-emptive force and regime change where appropriate? We wasted much of this decade pursuing the globalist route, so unfortunately time is now very short to determine whether a resurgent United States can yet save the day.

John R. Bolton is a senior fellow at AEI.