John Bolton

John R. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His area of research is U.S. foreign and national security policy. Prior to arriving at AEI, Amb. Bolton served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 1, 2005 to December 9, 2006. From June 2001 to May 2005, Ambassador Bolton served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, also in the Bush Administration. Prior to this, Ambassador Bolton was Senior Vice President of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He supervised the AEI research program, financial oversight, dissemination of the AEI research and publications, public affairs and general management. Ambassador Bolton has spent many years of his career in public service. Previous positions he has held are Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State, 1989-1993; Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 1985-1989; Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy Coordination, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1982-1983; General Counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1981-1982. Ambassador Bolton is also an attorney. He was an associate at the Washington office of Covington & Burling, and then a member of the firm from 1983-1985, after public service at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He currently is "of counsel" to the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Bolton graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Yale College (1970), and received his J.D. from Yale Law School (1974), where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal. Ambassador Bolton is married to Gretchen Smith Bolton. They have one daughter, Jennifer Sarah, an investment banker in New York.

ARTICLES BY: John Bolton

January 29, 2016 5:06 am

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40 Years of Campaign Finance Decisions at the Supreme Court

January 30 marks the fortieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Buckley v. Valeo, a case challenging the constitutionality of every significant provision of...

January 13, 2016 4:27 am

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The Next President Must Reverse Obama’s Disastrous Iran Policy

Even Iran's ayatollahs must be amazed at what they have gotten away with since last July's Vienna deal, which purportedly eliminated their nuclear weapons program....

January 5, 2016 7:32 am

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To Defeat ISIS, We Must Fight Ideology — Not Terrorism

The Democratic and Republican presidential primary campaigns are now approaching the ultimate reality: voters actually voting. Given the priority of international terrorism in their minds,...

November 25, 2015 7:50 am

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Creating Sunni State Best Way to Combat ISIS

America is debating how to respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris. Unfortunately, both President Obama’s current policy and other recent proposals lack a strategic...

November 17, 2015 8:15 am

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4 Lessons From the Paris Terror Attacks

French President Francois Hollande has contended unambiguously that ISIS launched the Paris terrorist attacks Friday night, and ISIS itself has now claimed responsibility.  It is not too...

November 13, 2015 6:03 am

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Downed Russian Airliner a Reminder That War on Terror Still Raging

Evidence that terrorists destroyed a Russian civilian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula continues to mount, although competent authorities still decline to say so definitively....

November 10, 2015 7:40 am

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Is Obama Prepared to Confront Beijing on South China Sea?

The Navy's recent deployment of the destroyer USS Lassen on a “freedom of navigation” exercise in the South China Sea demonstrated that America does not...

October 28, 2015 7:00 am

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Putin Is Playing Obama Like a Fiddle

Recent Russian efforts to magnify its Middle East influence have been accompanied by a seeming surge in Kremlin “reasonableness.” In fact, Russian calls for new...

October 19, 2015 1:38 pm

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Obama Fiddles While Russia Destroys Syria

Confusion reigns inside the Obama administration regarding Russia's military campaign to bolster President Bashar Assad's endangered Syrian regime. Russian President Vladimir Putin's intervention clearly caught...

October 16, 2015 4:46 am

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The UN Has Failed; Here’s How to Fix It

After 70 years, the United Nations has become a vast, sprawling conglomerate, overwhelmed by unsustainable ambitions, inadequate capacities, and plain reality. Characterized by speeches, meetings,...

October 14, 2015 7:00 am

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5 Questions for Candidates Running for President

With America's international influence declining at an ever-faster pace under Barack Obama, the importance of making national security the 2016 presidential campaign's central issue has...

October 4, 2015 4:46 am

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Putin Unleashed

By any objective measure, Russia has made a strategic decision to challenge America for dominance in the Middle East. Despite depressed global oil prices and...

September 17, 2015 7:19 am

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How to Lay the Groundwork for Dismantling the Iran Nuclear Deal

Congress is now debating the Vienna agreement on Iran's nuclear-weapons program, but we already know the outcome. A bipartisan House majority has or will shortly...

August 26, 2015 6:37 am

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The Bitter and Unpleasant Choices on Iran

The Vienna deal sets up a choice of bad and worse When Congress returns to Washington in September, it faces one of its most critical...