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John Bolton

Author, The Room Where It Happened; National Security Advisor (2018-2019); U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2005-2006)
Politician
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About

Gender: Male
Nationality: United States
Languages: English
Travels from: United States

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Biography Highlights

Described as "someone who sees the world as it really is" and who speaks "with moral clarity," John Bolton provides an unparalleled perspective on world events.

Biography

One of America’s most prominent policy voices, John Bolton is a lawyer and diplomat who has spent his career fighting to protect American national interests.

As National Security Advisor, Ambassador Bolton championed a strong and resolute US foreign and defense policy – recognized for his powerful national-security influence and past administrative experience, having served in the Reagan administration and under former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Ambassador Bolton scored key policy victories during his recent White House tenure, such as overseeing the administration’s withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, reached under former President Obama. He also served as a crucial force in strategic conversations with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, seeking broad concessions from Kim about his weapons of mass destruction. He participated in key policy formulation on issues related to Russia, including on strategic arms control, and on China.

As the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton strongly defended American economic and security interests, as he did throughout his time at the State and Justice Departments. During his tenure, he was a leading voice on the need for the Security Council to take strong and meaningful action against international proliferation and terrorism.

Along with France’s ambassador, Ambassador Bolton led the Security Council to approve a unanimous resolution to end the summer 2006 Hezbollah war on Israel, to authorize UN peacekeepers and to create an arms embargo against Hezbollah. He also assembled an international coalition that blocked the bid of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s Marxist strongman, to join the Security Council.

Throughout his distinguished career, Ambassador Bolton has been a staunch defender of American interests. While Under Secretary of State, he repeatedly advocated tough measures against the nuclear weapons programs of both Iran and North Korea, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction worldwide. He led negotiations for America to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty so that the Bush Administration could proceed with a national missile-defense program.

Ambassador Bolton is also an advocate for human rights. While serving at the UN, he arranged the Security Council’s first deliberations on Burma’s human rights abuses. He invited actor George Clooney and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to brief the Security Council in September 2006 on the Khartoum regime’s mass murder of non-Arabs in Darfur, Sudan. “Every day we delay only adds to the suffering of the Sudanese people and extends the genocide,” Ambassador Bolton says.

Released in June 2020, his book, The Room Where It Happened is a White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. His op-ed articles have also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other periodicals.

A man of principle and conviction, Bolton provided a forward-thinking vision on international economic and political issues vital to the U.S. and its allies. He shares with audiences his views on how the global economy is affected by the international geopolitical environment and foreign government policies, and how business, investors, and government need to respond. Leaning on his international and diplomatic experience under four presidential administrations, he explores populism, national security, and U.S. foreign policy in uncertain times.

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Topics

Drawing from his decades of political and diplomatic experience, Ambassador John Bolton examines the threats and challenges facing America and its allies, including:

  • China’s pursuit of an aggressive strategy in the South China Sea and an unprecedented buildup in cyberwarfare, nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and naval capabilities
  • Russia’s efforts to meddle in foreign elections, including our own, dramatically increased influence in the troubled Middle East, and growing pressure on neighboring countries in eastern Europe and the former USSR
  • The Middle East’s continued descent into chaos, with Israel threatened by terrorists, and Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, with ISIS and al Qaeda still menacing America and Europe

Ambassador Bolton will cover these or other topics of particular interest to your group, either in a stand-alone speech or as part of a debate or panel discussion. He shares with audiences:

  • Insight into the likely contrasts and continuities between Presidents Trump, Obama, and President Biden
  • Recommendations for dealing with strategic threats from Russia and China, and the longer-term threats of international terrorism and nuclear proliferation
  • Provocative thoughts on how to protect Israel’s security and that of other U.S. friends in the region, while bringing lasting peace to the Middle East
Available: In person, Virtually

Ambassador John Bolton shares his unique understanding of foreign policies, as well as what businesses should expect from the incoming administration.

Based on his international and diplomatic experience under four presidential administrations, Ambassador Bolton discusses:

  • What to expect from an incoming administration’s security policy, which could have far-reaching implications on financial and economic stability, particularly in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East
  • The impact of trade agreements on international partnerships and the global business environment
  • The current political risk assessment of any given market or markets, grounded in history and projected forward for business-planning purposes
  • Key insight into trends to consider over the next several months, and future business outlook of a Biden Administration
Available: In person, Virtually
Available: In person, Virtually
Available: In person, Virtually
Available: In person, Virtually
Available: In person, Virtually

Books

John Bolton book

The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

JOHN BOLTON READS THE EPILOGUE! As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves. The result is a “scathing and revelatory” (The New Yorker) White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office. What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” he writes. In fact, he argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping its prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy—and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them. He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government. In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who worked for Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He discovered a President who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal—about personal relationships, made-for-TV showmanship, and advancing his own interests. As a result, the US lost an opportunity to confront its deepening threats, and in cases like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea ended up in a more vulnerable place. Bolton’s “first tell-all memoir by such a high-ranking official” (The New York Times) starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he writes in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work—and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.” The turmoil, conflicts, and egos are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, the calculated warmongering by Iran, the crazy plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and the placating of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its lethal lies. But this seasoned public servant also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played.
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John Bolton book
Buy the book

The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

JOHN BOLTON READS THE EPILOGUE! As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves. The result is a “scathing and revelatory” (The New Yorker) White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office. What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” he writes. In fact, he argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping its prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy—and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them. He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government. In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who worked for Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He discovered a President who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal—about personal relationships, made-for-TV showmanship, and advancing his own interests. As a result, the US lost an opportunity to confront its deepening threats, and in cases like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea ended up in a more vulnerable place. Bolton’s “first tell-all memoir by such a high-ranking official” (The New York Times) starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he writes in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work—and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.” The turmoil, conflicts, and egos are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, the calculated warmongering by Iran, the crazy plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and the placating of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its lethal lies. But this seasoned public servant also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played.