For too many in diplomatic circles in Washington and New York, diplomacy and multilateralism have become ends in and of themselves, rather than tools to achieve vital national security priorities. In his new book, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad (Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster, November 2007), AEI senior fellow John Bolton, former U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and under secretary of state for arms control and international security, paints a picture of an American Department of State mired in bureaucratic inertia and a UN concerned less with weapons proliferation and human tragedy abroad than with protection of personal perks and political sacred cows.

In Surrender Is Not an Option, Ambassador Bolton recounts his appointment in 2005 and lessons learned from his Senate confirmation battle, and he offers insight into international crises such as North Korea’s nuclear test, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, the genocide in Darfur, the month-long negotiation that produced the controversial end of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and more. Detailing both his successes and frustrations in taking a hard line against weapons of mass destruction proliferators, terrorists, and rogue states, he also exposes the UN’s bias against Israel and the United States and the operational inadequacies that hinder the UN’s effectiveness in international diplomacy.

Is America the last idealist left in Turtle Bay, surrounded by nations that unashamedly use the UN as an instrument of foreign policy? Has the United States abdicated the leadership role so vital to its own national security and that of its allies? Is it necessary to fundamentally rethink the tools of American foreign policy that will put solutions to terrorist threats, weapons proliferation, and human rights horrors front and center?

Please join the American Enterprise Institute for a presentation by Ambassador Bolton, with commentary from two of the nation’s leading foreign policy authorities, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-D-Conn.) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Senator Lieberman is the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; Senator Kyl is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Most recently, both led the Senate to adopt the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, which calls on the U.S. government to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Each has played key roles in the crucial national security debates detailed in Surrender Is Not an Option.