Pearson, the Vice President of the board of directors. Yet Americas Foundation is the premier Outreach Organization of the conservative movement. In 2018 the la times called it one of the most preeminent and influential forces in the conservative youth movement. Each year we introduce thousands of americans used to the fundamental conservative values we believe in such as individual freedoms, free enterprise, a Strong National defense, and traditional american values. This initiative has tours and conferences. I have the distinct honor of introducing tonight speaker who is a longtime friend of the foundation. The honorable john bolton is serving as the 27th National Security advisor of the u. S. Appointed by donald trump in april 2018. He is a native of baltimore, maryland. He graduated from yale with his bachelors in 1970 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1974. He has dedicated his life to Public Service serving in key roles for the u. S. Department of justice, department of state and u. S. Agency for international development. In 2005 he was appointed by the george w. Bush as the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations. He served as the senior Vice President at the American Enterprise institution as well as a contributor to fox news. He recognizes the importance for Strong National defense and for americas role as a global power in promoting democracy around the world. He lives with his wife and daughter in maryland. We are honored to have him with us. Join me in welcoming the honorable john bolton. Thank you very much. Thank you. It is great to be here tonight and i really appreciate the opportunity to be with you and the Conference Agenda sounds fantastic and i can tell you is a former member myself, back in the day when we are doing it, if we had an opportunity like this to be in washington, it wouldve been something. So im sure the rest of this will be great. I want to talk to you tonight about some of the Foreign Policy challenges that face the u. S. Today, but i want to start off with some edmund burke, who is someone that i read as a High School Student and one of the things that propelled me toward conservatism. He had an extraordinary political career serving in the British Parliament during the american and french resolutions. He understood that the foundational reality for foreignpolicy was the national interest. He despised idealistic fantasies with no pragmatic purpose. He believes that prudence and reasoning from empirical reality helped to inform wouldve foreignpolicy should be. I think that provides the foundation for how we ought to proceed across the board today. If you go back to the end of the cold war in 1991, people came away from that with very different views of the way the world should be going forward. There were some people who under the rubric of the end of history declared it was over. We were done and we had one. We had reduced our capabilities and undermined our structures of deterrence and weakened american influence around the world. People called it the peace dividend. That is what the liberals were doing. Conservatives were more fragmented and there were three schools, i think, at the end of the cold war. One was flatout isolationists. Thereve always been some isolationists among conservatives, but it was an argument that made more sense in 1790 than it does today. The second group wanted to go into another worldwide crusade for democracy. They are still out there as well. And then there was a third category that i would put myself in. Looking to build an american Foreign Policy based upon national interests. The First Impression is we dont seek hostility with anyone, we are trading nation and we would like a Peaceful World to engage in peaceful intercourse. There are a lot of people out there, whoever, who dont agree with that and we are confronting some of them. We confronted someone 9 11 and there are others we are facing today. Im not proposing a world order. Im proposing a world where america is safe. It means that american sovereignty is no longer offered submissively to nations that would control our ambition. Not all americans understand or agree with that. In 2009 president obama addressed the General Assembly saying in an era where our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zerosum game. He said no world order that elevates one nation or group of people above another will succeed and no balance of power among nations will hold. What he was talking about in a world order that elevated one nation above another was us. That is what he was opposed to. After another speech given by him on the 65th anniversary of dday, a reporter said comparing reagans speech in 1984, the reporter said reagan was all about america. Obama is we are above that now. But the job of americas president is to ensure the security of the American People and we are not above that now. And we never will be. In his day Theodore Roosevelt understood this fully. When Woodrow Wilson called for making the world safe for democracy, roosevelt replied emphatically, first we are to make the world safe for ourselves. That remains our objective today. Lets consider some of the specific problems that we face. With iran we withdrew last year from the joint comprehensive plan of action and the nuclear deal. Because it failed utterly in preventing them from developing Nuclear Weapons. Any nation that chance death to america are death to israel will not be allowed to have Nuclear Weapons. We designated the Islamic Revolutionary guards corps foreign terrorist organization. No other element of a Foreign Government has ever earned such a dubious distinction. What it means in practice is we are watching very closely for any individual company or institution that chooses to do business with the irg see and anyone associated with it will find it difficult to get into the u. S. Following the withdrawal the President Trump reintroduced sanctions from iran being able to reach their objective of Nuclear Weapons. The sanctions are crushing their economy, devaluing their currency and depleting their natural reserves. They have tried every trick to smuggle oil to other nations in exchange for cash. When that did not work out they turned to other Industrial Products and we sanctioned those as well. Irans behavior has only grown worse. Not only does the regime continue to pursue Nuclear Weapons, it has increased its support for terrorism such as aiding those in yemen and ramped up conventional military activity in syria and iraq. The irgc has become more aggressive, not less. Moreover, iran has chosen the very risky course of confronting the u. S. Directly. They have shot down our aircraft and record weekly seized ships and international waters. They have tested listed muscles and increased the enrichment levels and amount of enriched uranium in their stockpile. They seek to buy time hoping for a more pliant administration in 2021. Much like barack obama. The people of iran deserve better than to be ponds in a game of run out the clock until they build a nuclear weapon. America will continue to work with our allies to apply maximum pressure on iran. Iran can solve this problem very easily by demonstrating that theyve made a strategic decision to stop pursuing Nuclear Weapons, give up the Ballistic Missile program, which is intended to provide Delivery Systems for those weapons, abandon their Financial Support for International Terrorism and stop their other maligned activity in the middle east. The ball is in their court. We recognize also that iran presents particular threat to israel. President trump has stated that the u. S. Supports israels right of selfdefense and has taken Consistent Actions to demonstrate our support. Since 1993 president s have stood up one after the other to say that they would recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel and moved the u. S. Embassy to the city of david. President trump actually did it. He did it against dire warnings of unprecedented bloodshed that did not materialize. Today the u. S. Embassy is in jerusalem. The president took another historic step recently in recognizing israeli sovereignty over the golan heights. In the United States we closed the plo office, it was right here in washington, d. C. We also stopped funding the u. S. Agency for palestine and cut all funding that benefited the Palestinian Authority. When the plo takes concrete steps to negotiate in good steps with israel, we will reconsider allowing the office to reopen down street. When the Palestinian Authority stops paying for fighters and their families who end up in the hospital for killing innocent american and israeli men, women, and children, we will reconsider how to fund it. These are common sense steps in the national interest. Do not Fund Terrorists who are trying to kill you. That is a hard lesson for some people to learn. Perhaps you have noticed that the relationships in the middle east have started to shift. Arab nations recognize that iran will continue to fund terrorist organizations to destabilize the region and concentrate power in teheran. Arabs and israelis are working together in a united front against malicious iranian actions. This is how strong prudent leadership improves stability in the middle east and that is good for the u. S. I was recently in jerusalem for trilateral talks with israel and russia. And even russia agrees with the u. S. That israels security is central to the stability of the middle east. It is significant to get the u. S. And russia to agree on anything today. So that was, i think, an important lesson. In particular, we disagree on the intermediate range Nuclear Forces treaty, which prohibits ballistic and groundbased missiles with a range of 303,000 miles. This friday will mark the official and of the inf treaty when the u. S. Withdraws. By and large americans are law abiding people. We agreed to a treaty, we uphold our end of the agreement and we expect other nations to uphold their end. For too long the u. S. Abided by the treaty while russia continued to develop advanced hypersonic Delivery Systems to modernize their inventory in violation of the treaty. This is another part of the problem. We have had our hands tied by this treaty while china develops their intermediate range weapons unconstrained by any treaty obligations. In the interest of our National Security we chose to untie our hands in order to protect america effectively in the 21st century. There are threats out there that are existential and with which there is no compromise. The president has charged the National Security team to think more broadly about arms control in terms of the countries and weapon systems involved. The world has moved on from the cold war and its bilateral treaties that covered limited types of Nuclear Weapons or only certain ranges of adversary missiles. The president wants affective arms control that delivers Real Security to the American People and our allies. To achieve this he has concluded that we must negotiate with russia and china. The administration has been consistent beginning with the Nuclear Review that arms control can contribute to the National Security of the u. S. And our allies. But unlike some true believers who worship at the altar of the current arms control apparatus, we see that as a means to an end and not an end in and of itself. For example the new Start Nuclear agreement that was ratified in 2010 was flawed from the beginning. It did not cover short range tactical weapons or new russian Delivery Systems. It is due to expire in february of 2021 and one the decision has been made, it is unlikely to be extended. Why extend a flawed system just to say have a treaty . We need to focus on Something Better and we will as i mentioned, with china we want to cooperate with china when the interests align, but as President Trump laid out, we are here to compete. We see very hostile activities by china on a range of military front such as in the East China Sea and the south china sea. We see a tremendous buildup and Blue Water Navy capabilities. We see a determined form of their Economic Policy internationally and particularly the way they have abused their position in the wto. The u. S. Is committed to securing fair and reciprocal terms in our trade practices and that will require china to be more transparent. It is on that point that the president has particularly confronted china. He is doing it on the basis of an insight that no one would dispute that ultimately national , political, and military power and its projection around the world rests on a strong economy. When one country is abusing the rules of the International Trading system and particularly taking advantage of the u. S. , that must stop. You see through the use of tariffs that the administration is willing to use all available tools to help level the playing field. The trade negotiations that followed the imposition of tariffs have concentrated on what we call structural issues. Massive, persistent theft of American Intellectual property, forced technology transfer, and discrimination against american businesses and investors. All of these complaints about china are shared in common by european, japanese, and other foreign participants in the International Economic system. China has made a common practice to coerce and intimidate other nations in the Pacific Region and the u. S. Has made it clear that we want peace and stability there. Will perfect o other lawful uses of the sea. We will continue to partner with those nations who respect National Sovereignty fair and reciprocal trade and the rule of law. Turning to a different range of problems, consider international organization. Gives the authority to create and interpret and enforce laws. That make us an exceptional nation among nations. Others disagree with. Some even in our own three to return sovereignty and National Security as shown by the establishment of the International Criminal court. 1998 a group of nations gathered and adopted an agreement called the rome statute. They established the International Criminal court of 18 justices to try perpetrators of for crimes, genocide crimes against humanity were crimes and the crime of aggression. There is no dispute that those crimes are heinous and unacceptable to the United States. We demonstrated time and time again when americans abuse our to show system they do in foreign lands and hold them accountable. We have the strictest rules of war of any country in the world and we have the strongest indoctrination of our servicemembers and every right to be completely proud of the way america conducts war. I think when it is considered to the extent to which we have gone the idea that we need an International Criminal court is just flatly wrong. One central innovation in the International Criminal court was the office of the prosecutor. This prosecutor has the authority to open investigations and pursue prosecution. The prosecutor should go after military commanders and anyone who knew and didnt stop the military operation and all subject to fines of jail time. If there was any a nightmare example of an illegitimate Court Structure with an unconstrained jurisdiction and unaccountable prosecutor, this was it. It was my distinct pleasure to lead the effort for the United States to unsigned that statute which president george w. Bush did in 2002 one year before the court went live. Instead, we created over 100 Bilateral Agreements all binding so that other nations would not transfer the personnel to the custody of the International Criminal court. Unfortunately not all the european friends that would enter those agreements. In late 2017 what we fear finally occurred the prosecutor requested authorization to and castigate and prosecute American Military members and intelligence personnel for alleged crimes committed during the war in afghanistan. Last year on the anniversary of the september 11 attacks, i had another distinct pleasure of letting the icc know that america would not tolerate such an illegitimate intrusion upon our sovereignty. In april of th year the icc finally backed down and decided not to authorize the investigation which was a win for the rule of law. The International Court of outsiders that can secondguess the actions of the personnel during war and is free to prosecute the chain of command up to and including the president of the United States has no authority or legal standing in our country. One of the more dangerous goals is to restrain the military actions of our nation apart from our own constitutional system which does so. To doubt in our servicemembers and personnel that they be subjected to war crimes not through our own constitutional system. Our National Survival depends on our defense which we are capable of regulating and judging ourselves. We will not ask permission we will not kneel. Thank you very much. I am told you do questions and answers which im happy to do and i think there are microphones. Good evening i am from Queens University in the United Kingdom. Im wondering what opportunities you see between the United Kingdom and the United States. I was delighted that the british people have the wisdom to leave the European Union. It has been a long and arduous road to get to this point and i think that free to the regulation and restrictions of the European Union potential for Economic Growth in Great Britain is enormous and i think there is a Natural Partnership with the United States, President Trump has been emphatic ever since the campaign that he looked forward to negotiating a reciprocal trade deal with United Kingdom at the earliest opportunity. We are expecting that the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson will be here we hope in august and certainly very soon and i think it will be a great relationship between the president and the Prime Minister and i think it will be a real opportunities to strengthen the special relationship between the two countries. This is an enormous step by britain and it is very much in americas interest to make sure this succeeds. Thank you for coming out tonight. My name is sarah garcia and a lot of iranian americans have inherited a longstanding mistrust of the United States standing from the 1953 coup so how do we appeal to them to vote for President Trump when they are affected by sanctions. What we have seen across iran is demonstrations in opposition to the regime not because of sanctions, but because of 40 years of Mission Management and the economy. The opposition is now very broad and not just in the education classes and in the villages and farms and small businesses. Doesnt get reported in the western press because they dont leave the big city. I think the regime today is weaker than it has ever been. This is not a quarrel with the iranian people. Weve had great relations with iran before. Every reason to believe we would have great relations again. Dq in 1953 was actually the restoration of a legitimate government that had been ousted in a coup that started before the one that restored the power and matter of historical interest. It is important to keep that straight and very strong feelings in the community about the legitimacy of the government in tehran now and i dont think there has been a president since 1979 who has stood as strongly for the freedom of the iranian people than donald trump. Whoever is next out there. Beginning now it is American History tv looking at civil war artifacts. This took place at the civil war summer conference. It lasts about an hour and 10 minutes. I teach in the History Department of West Virginia university in morgantown and i am better known as actually as husband and harpers dad. It is my birthday today. [ cheers and applause ]