John Bolton — LLMpedia

John Bolton
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Name	John Bolton
Birth date	20 November 1948
Birth place	Baltimore, Maryland
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Yale University; Yale Law School; University of Colorado (exchange)
Occupation	Diplomat; Lawyer; Author; Government official
Party	Republican Party
Known for	Ambassador to the United Nations; National Security Council; U.S. Department of State

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John Bolton is an American attorney, diplomat, and conservative commentator who served in multiple Republican administrations and as Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006. He has been a prominent advocate for hawkish foreign policy positions, a frequent commentator on Fox News and other media outlets, and an author of several books on international relations and national security. Bolton's career spans service in the Reagan administration, the George W. Bush administration, the George H. W. Bush administration, and the Trump administration, and includes roles in the Department of State, the Department of Justice, and the National Security Council.

Early life and education

Bolton was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Glen Cove, New York and Maumee, Ohio. He attended Yale University for undergraduate studies and earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. During his education he participated in programs connected with the United States Air Force and engaged with scholars from Harvard University, Stanford University, and Columbia University through conferences and seminars. His early mentors and influences included figures associated with Cold War era policy debates and legal scholars from the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society.

Bolton began his career in private practice at firms connected to Washington, D.C. legal networks and later joined the United States Department of Justice in roles involving international law and treaty interpretation. He served in the Reagan administration at the Department of State and held positions in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the United Nations Security Council legal apparatus. Bolton worked on cases touching on treaties such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and engaged with international institutions including the International Court of Justice and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He represented U.S. positions in negotiations involving nations like Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Russia, and interacted with diplomats from China, France, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

Bolton held multiple appointed positions: Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs under George H. W. Bush, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs during the George W. Bush administration, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations following nomination by George W. Bush. He later served as a senior fellow at think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and as a member of the National Security Council under Donald Trump as National Security Advisor. His interagency work brought him into contact with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and members of the United States Congress, including committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Bolton is associated with neoconservative and conservative hawk perspectives, advocating for policies including regime change in states he viewed as hostile, robust enforcement of sanctions on Iran and North Korea, and strengthening relationships with allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. He has criticized multilateral institutions like the United Nations, argued for U.S. sovereignty in treaty matters involving the International Criminal Court, and supported statutory measures in the United States Congress to constrain international agreements. Bolton has testified before congressional committees including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and has participated in policy debates at the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, and Hoover Institution.

Bolton has written op-eds for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post and authored books on diplomacy and national security. His books and memoirs address interactions with administrations and global leaders from George W. Bush to Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and discuss crises involving Iraq War, Syrian Civil War, the Iran nuclear deal, and negotiations with North Korea. He has appeared as a commentator on networks such as Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and on programs produced by NPR and PBS, as well as in interviews with international broadcasters like the BBC and Al Jazeera.

Bolton's tenure and public statements generated disputes over topics including the Iran-Contra affair era policies, his nomination fights in the United States Senate for the UN ambassadorship, and his later publication of memoirs that led to a legal confrontation with the Trump administration over classification and prepublication review procedures involving the Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration. He faced criticism from advocacy groups including Human Rights Watch and ACLU for positions on international tribunals, and scrutiny from members of both Democratic Party and Republican Party lawmakers. Legal disputes included litigation over alleged prepublication clearance violations and congressional testimony controversies before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.