Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton addresses President Obama's 'New International Order'

September 28, 2009

The Wake Forest University School of Law’s Federalist Society will host John Bolton, the 25th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush administration, at noon on Friday, Oct. 2, in Room 1312 of the Worrell Professional Center.

Bolton, who gained a reputation for his outspoken views on reform in the United Nations and his opposition to U.S. membership in the International Criminal Court, will address President Barack Obama’s “New International Order.” The event is only open to the Wake Forest University community.

Bolton told the National Review Online that President Obama’s address to the U.N. was “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests.

“It was a very naïve, Wilsonian speech, and very revealing of Obama’s foreign policy,” says Bolton. “Overall, it was so apologetic for the actions of prior administrations, in an effort to distance Obama from them, that it became yet another symbol of American weakness in the wake of the president’s decision to abandon missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and his recent manifest hesitation over what to do in Afghanistan.”

Currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Bolton helped determine the United States’ post-9/11 foreign policy. His experience over three Republican administrations included senior positions with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Bolton has a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Yale University.