Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations | John Bolton

Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations | John Bolton | Bolton meets the billing...

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Surrender Is Not a...

	Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations John Bolton Threshold Editions, 2007 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Still a Dangerous Place

Patrick Moynihan entitled his memoir of his years as Ambassador to the UN "A Dangerous Place." John Bolton (Ambassador in 2005 and 2006) shows that little has changed.

During his tenure at the UN and his prior service as Undersecretary of State for arms control and international security affairs, Ambassador Bolton dealt with issues such as the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, the UN "Oil for Food" scandal, the election of a new UN Secretary General and efforts to reform broken parts of that organization, of Darfur and the war in Lebanon. These issues, and the challenges at making and implementing policy both within the US government and through interactions with allies and adversaries, are detailed in Bolton's memoir.

Making policy, and dealing with diplomats from other nations, involves interacting with people of differing, sometimes naïve, worldviews. Amusing (if it did not reveal the insularity of UN leaders) is the episode in which the President of the General assembly at the time lectured the recently reelected President Bush on how American public opinion viewed the world (and the UN). Distressing is the conclusion of many UN diplomats that the embezzlements in the Oil for Food scandal were properly addressed by adopting resolutions and changing the subject, instead of changing the structure.

Bolton takes the UN seriously, as a place where words have meaning and where the nuances of phrasing in resolutions can promote or retard national policy. In a world where entropy is the natural order, where the natural end of any negotiation is perceived, even by many of our allies, as reaching an agreement by consensus, which means be surrendering any principled position in order to meet the lowest common denominator --- usually the party causing the problem. But Bolton shows how seeking agreement for compromise sake fails either to address US national interests or to address serious, and dangerous, threats to peace throughout the world.

"Surrender is not an option" is a professionally written book, not a "tell-all" memoir in which the author seeks to even scores for his adversaries in the policy making process by ad hominen, personal attacks upon his rivals within the government. While Bolton's traditional candor animates his writing, he treats his disagreements with others as arguments over policy and tactics. The result is more than a personal memoir; it is a study on how policy is made in our democracy and at the UN. Whether readers will find the result reassuring or disturbing may turn on the illusions the reader brings to the work,

For myself, I look forward to Bolton's memoir of his next period of public service.

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Bolton meets the billing...

John Bolton's memoirs meet his billing as a "gray battleship" that keeps firing.

Bolton's advocacy for America, more human freedom and voluntary UN contributions clearly makes the book at least somewhat agenda-driven, but unsurprising for an in-again, out-again, back-in American Enterprise Institute (a major conservative think tank) fellow. That said, this book allows a full portrait into the messy UN Bureaucracy.

Also, like with many bureaucratic organizations (I've worked with and in public service bureaucracies), Bolton realizes for reform he must not be the lone wolf but on the synergy with other perm reps to the UN. Bolton wasn't out to take out 10 stories of the UN HQ when Ambassador... he was out to weaken the then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who considered himself a "Secular Pope" who could have (and had) bit the hand of America that pays over 20% of the UN's bills and streghen member nations' voices in the UN.

Ultimately, I really felt this book gave me an education in the nature of the UN as well as how to reform bureaucracies and have already given one as a Christmas present to a pen pal. Hence the 5 stars. A must have for any conservative or watchdog of the United Nations.

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Great Book From a Great American

John Bolton was America's greatest UN Ambassador. I'll never forget how he stood up to the North Korean terrorists and laid down the law on the UN floor, despite the appeasement pleadings coming from linguine-spined liberals. In this book, Bolton continues telling the truth no matter what the cost.

You may be shocked and offended to learn that terrorists are actively trying to destroy America, but John Bolton doesn't care. This book is full of facts that may make the appeasers want to cry, that is what makes it so great. Surrender is NOT an option as long as George W. Bush has strong men like John Bolton working for America.

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Very complete and detailed review of recent history.

This is an excellent and interesting book. However, the level of detail that Bolton goes into makes it difficult to sustain interest. Many of the details could have been omitted to make the presentation move at a better pace.

shame he's not running things

This is the very interesting memoir of a fireman's son, who fought a lot of the battles of America in the UN and related agencies for many years. It is a shame that we are not guided by his intellect and common sense instead of the instituional memory and methods of the State Department.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11

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