AEI senior fellow John R. Bolton introduced his New York Times-bestselling book Surrender Is Not an Option at a book forum on November 13.

In the book, Bolton recounts his career in public service, which included a stint as under secretary for arms control and international security and culminated in a recess appointment as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) from August 2005 to December 2006. Following his tenure at the UN, Bolton returned as a senior fellow to AEI, where he had served as senior vice president from 1999 to 2001.

At the book forum, Bolton stressed the importance--considering the proximity of the next presidential election--of examining "what we did right and what we did wrong in the Bush administration." He believes that Bush's successor has a heavy mantle to assume, and he stated at the forum that he is "convinced that the 2008 election will be extraordinarily consequential in foreign and defense policy." In Surrender Is Not an Option, Bolton elaborates on this point. "These [national security] choices will certainly be far broader than the course we should pursue in Iraq, despite our current preoccupation and the preferences of some politicians to have that issue alone predominate," he writes. "The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and especially North Korea and Iran; the unsettled Middle East . . . Russia's renewed aggressiveness . . . and China's large and growing demand for energy and its rapidly increasing military budgets and capabilities are among the immediately recognizable problems."

Bolton spoke at length about his time at the State Department and the UN and the need for reform in both organizations. The current focus at the UN on "incremental or marginal reform," Bolton said, "is not going to be successful." He recommended that reform efforts instead be directed at changing the way the UN is financed.

While on the subject of reform, Bolton called for an examination of what is wrong with the State Department and an assessment of how to fix it. He emphasized the need for State Department officials who do not develop "clientitis," as he puts it--that is, officials who understand that they are representing the United States to the foreign country to which they are assigned, and not the other way around. "We need a State Department that's not embarrassed by the United States," he said.

AEI president Christopher DeMuth, who introduced Bolton by saying that he had served the United States at the UN "with great distinction and occasional controversy," moderated a question and answer session that centered on U.S. diplomacy and policy in Asia and the Middle East.

In response to questions from the audience, Bolton expressed guarded pessimism about the situation in both regions. He attributed Iranian mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle to the U.S. failure to insist on UN sanctions against Iran, referring to International Atomic Energy Agency director general Mohamed ElBaradei as an "apologist for Iran." When asked for his thoughts on whether the United States can trust Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear program as agreed, he responded that the "credibility of North Korea is slim, to say the least." And he faulted the U.S. government for undermining the authority of Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, arguing that the only way to maintain the security of that country's nuclear arsenal is to support the current president.

For information about this book, visit www.aei.org/book911/. For a video of this book forum, visit www.aei.org/event1597/.