Thread by @willchamberlain

Bolton supports Teddy Roosevelt and opposes Woodrow Wilson - We shouldn't try to make a "world order," but we should want a world that is "safe" for Americans

Bolton argues that Communism was an existential threat - and thus (implicitly) that even from a nationalist perspective aggressively opposing communism was right

Goes on to argue that nuclear proliferation is similarly existential threat

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Bolton gives what I think is a pretty sound framework for understanding the strains of American foreign policy thinking:

Isolationism - stay at home
Wilsonianism - worldwide crusade for Democracy
Nationalism - focus on our national interest

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Bolton on US/China relations; China is abusing the rules of the international trading system, that should stop

Bolton admits error on China's admission to the WTO - he thought they would be more democratic, clearly that hasn't happened

Bolton points out that McCain's slogan was "country first"

Notes that it's pretty obvious what country McCain was referring to, and so nationalism is and has been a mainstream conservative foreign policy

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Bolton: "I'm not in the business of constructing an ideal international order. I'm about responding to specific threats."

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Bolton notes out that the NATO secretary-general believes that President Trump's push for bigger defense spending by NATO members has led to $100 billion more in defense spending

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Bolton: "I believe in effective alliances, I do not believe in supranational government."

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Bolton on Venezuela: "If the 20,000 Cuban troops there left today, the Maduro government would fall by midnight."

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Bolton IMO is unpersuasive on Venezuela

He's reiterating all the diplomatic support for Guaido

and says at the end "if you believe that Maduro is the legitimate leader of Venezuela, that tells me all I need to know about your philosophy."

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Bolton argues that he's for "solving problems," distinguished from the "European" approach which he argues entails "managing problems"

Also not persuasive, was Iraq "solved?" Venezuela?

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Bolton: "I favor Democracy. That's my preferred system of government...but different times, different circumstances dictate different results...The people must be ready to receive [democracy]."

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Bolton critical of Obama policy in Egypt - points out that it put the Muslim Brotherhood in power..."Explain to me what we achieved by that particular exercise in Democracy."

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