than the speed of sound on a fuel mix that is half biomass. the air force is also testing jenna engines using biofuels and have the first -- jet engines using biofuels and has the first test flight and just last week. i do not want to drum up any rivalry here -- [laughter] the pentagon is not seeking these alternative fuels just to protect our environment. they're pursuing these homegrown energy sources to protect our national security. our military leaders recognize the imperative of increasing the use of alternative fuels, decreasing energy use, reducing our reliance on imported oil, making ourselves more energy efficient. that is why the navy, led by ledmavis -- led by secretary mavis who is here today, is reducing the use of fuel and all

of its vehicles and ships. . .

i know that we can come together to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that is going to foster new industry, create millions of new jobs, protect our planet's, and help us become more energy independent. that is so we can do and that is what we must do. i am confident that that is what we will do. thank you very much. thank you for serving in our armed services. you are making an enormous contribution and this is just one example of the leadership that you are showing. thank you very much. [applause]

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>> coming up on c-span, a former united nations ambassador john bolton on american sovereignty and the u.s. russian arms control agreement. also, afghanistan's ambassador to the u.s. six questions on

initiative to train future afghan leaders. following that, a look at the obama administration's counterterrorism strategy. >> this week on american and that -- america and the courts, the case on whether non-u.s. citizens can be denied a vaccine. today, 7:00 p.m. on c-span. >> flexible policies actually make employees more productive. instead of spending time worrying about what is happening at home, your employees have the support and the peace of mind that they desperately need to concentrate on their work. >> watch something on c-span that you'd like to share with

friends? at a news c-span video library, you can search it, watch it, and share its. over one added 60,000 hours of video from yesterday or last year. -- 160,000 hours of video from yesterday or last year. >> up next, a former united nations ambassador john bolton on american sovereignty and the u.s. russia nuclear arms control agreement. this is just over an hour.

>> we welcome those who are joining us on the web site and to ask that everybody in house check that cell phones have been turned off as a courtesy to our presenter. we will oppose the program within 24 hours on the heritage website for everyone's future reference and our internet viewers are always welcome to e- mail us with questions and/or comments. hosting our program this afternoon is camera -- kim holmes. he oversees herod tibbs alison center for foreign policy studies, are asian studies and international trade centers as well as our margaret thatcher center for freedom. he is the founding editor of the index of economic freedom, now in its 16th annual joint publication with the wall street journal. from 2002-2005, he was

privileged to serve in the bush administration as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs. please join me in welcoming my colleague. [applause] >> thank you. good morning everybody. it is a pleasure to have all of you here this morning. this is an exciting day for us at heritage. we have the distinct honor to remember a man that was near and dear to the hearts of not only the people here are the foundation who worked with him so often over the years, but to conservatives all across the america and -- all across america and all across the world. i'm speaking of jesse helms. i would like to thank the president to of the jesse helms center foundation for joining us today. the foundation is sponsoring

this lecture series and we are pleased to partner with them in highlighting the values and principles on which this nation was founded, the very values that senator helms promoted with vigor all of his life. on behalf of the heritage foundation, i would like to welcome the senator's daughter and her husband. we're so pleased that you could join us to honor your father's great legacy. i want to extend a welcome to brian rogers from the home center. they're representing the board of directors. for this first lecture, zero we chose a topic on protecting national sovereignty. when he was chair of the senate committee, and he went into the lions' den at the united nations in new york city to forcefully defends sovereignty of the bedrock principles of the international system. his address to the security

council, he said, the united nations must respect national sovereignty in the united states and everywhere else. the united nations serves nation states, not the other way around. this principle is central to the legitimacy and the ultimate survival of the united nations. it is a principle that must be protected. like senator helms, we believe that sovereignty is critical. it is also at risk. to many want america to surrender of sovereignty. too few understand that to it was certification -- traded to serve its members and not the other way around prayed too few understand that we defend american sovereignty because we value the u.s. constitution. that guarantees american rights. for over 25 years, we have turned the spotlight on the united nations to expose its

waste, fraud, and abuse and to demand better of it. we worked closely with allies on the hill and senator helms was the best -- was the best of them. the list of what the united nations does poorly is unfortunately far longer than what it does well. this is a point that ambassador john bolten makes. we have a copy of this book right here. if you would like to read any of the essays in this book, just go to the heritage web site. few people have worked as hard as john bolton to protect america from those who wish to do it hard. we cannot be more pleased for him to give the first lecture. he fought to protect our

sovereignty and our freedoms in a number of very important government post. he was permanent representative to the united nations and before that, under secretary of state for arms control and international security under president george w. bush. he was assistant secretary of state in organizational affairs and he was assistant attorney general for the justice department under president ronald reagan. john has written a pamphlet on the topic. it will be coming out in a few weeks in a series of pamphlets that will be published by encounter books. please join me in welcoming ambassador john bolton. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much.

it is great to be back. it is great to work again with the jesse helms center and to see members of the family. i really honored to have a chance to give the first of the washington series of lectures. i go back a long way with the helms enterprise. i worked with the senator in connection with campaign finance law back in the 1970's. i was pleased to work with him in a series of national security issues during his time in the senate. it is a real pleasure, especially to address the question of u.s. sovereignty which was something that he cared very deeply about. i know he would be concerned about it in the present

circumstances we face. sovereignty is a critically important issue for americans. it is something we feel instinctively that lies in all american citizens. the concept arrives originally from monarchies. the kings and queens for the sovereign spread to many people, it seems abstract. it does not seek -- it does not have the immediacy that it does to americans. we understand that in america, it is we the people who are sovereign. when you hear academics or people from the international left or some of our friends in europe say, the world is very complex now. these national sovereignties get in a way of solving global problems. whinnied to cool sovereignty or share sovereignty -- we need to cool sovereignty or share sovereignty. what they're really saying is that you need to give up

control of the american government. idea of pooling or sharing some of the sovereignty we have is naturally objectionable. but this is part of a larger struggle that's been going on for quite sometime, a struggle that's frankly most americans don't even know is happening. and i characterize it as a struggle between globalist, people who think that all problems move in the direction of greater international discussion and resolution versus americanist. people who think we're quite capable of solving problems, saying within the framework of the american constitution. now this is a -- at both, at times both a dense and abstract subject. i think the political and media elites in the united states look down at people who are concerned about sovereignty.

it reflects a certain parochialism in their attitude. i think it's exactly the opposite. i think concerns about the constitution, about our role in representative government in the united states and the impliation of sovereignty on a daily basis by the workings of our constitution system is absolutely basic. and that deviates from that model are things that have to be looked at with great care. but i think as i say, most americans have not focused on the fact that there are more challenges out there to our sovereignty that we can imagine. not made for tv moments, not events that come dramatically to public attention. but years and years of resolutions being passed in international organizations of conference going, of articles written were of people pushing their own agendas.

effecting the united states in the way coral reef grows in many cases. it's not anything that the is subject to dramatization. but that doesn't make it any less significant or any other important. now in years gone by, people who weren't favorably disposed to american constitutionalism used to talk about world government. nobody talks about world government anymore. accept out in the fever swamps. they've got other phrases that they use. my favorite being global governance. now that's not the same as world government. and i'll be clear. not everybody who advocates greater global governance really thinks you're going to end up with the world government. there's a lot of disagreement about the ultimate goal, the pace at which people are going and so on. global governance itself is a way of expressing dissatisfaction with the workings of an autonomist u.s.

constitutional system. become in 1995, a book with the charming title, our global neighborhood. i don't know what other neighborhood we're in, by the way. but our global neighborhood described local governance this way. they said it's part of the evolution of human effort to have organization life on the planet. and it's process will always be going on. so you see, they take a long view on global governance. you'll think it's around part of the resolution of governance. somehow you stepped off the evolutionary treadmill and drag your knuckles. this is a way of characterizing problems that enables its

advocates to escape that i think their proposals need. we'll talk about some of those proposals as we go on. it's very -- it's much more common in europe, though, for people to be open about their object i haves. especially as through the european union, our leads in europe have gotten very good at pooling or sharing europeansoeverty at brussels. so we had just at the end of last year, european union now has a president, the rough equivalent of barack obama i suppose. i don't know what that makes the president of members states of the european union, i don't think they'd characterize themselves as governor. we have president sarkozy of france here today having a meeting with president obama. i suppose the closest thing we could imagine the president of france is governor of massachusetts. i think that's probably the closest analogy.

but the european union, the new president, herman, the former prime minister of belgium said in his inaugural address, which i'm sure you've all read; right? he said -- he described 2009 and i'm quoting as the first year of global governance with the establishment of the g20 in the middle of the financial crisis. the climate conference in copen haggen is -- copenhagen is the first step. this is the approach of many people who favor moving towards global governance. i think we are entitled to ask one year what is the president's view of american sovereignty? how does he view these issues? and i think we can see already that the president has -- president obama has a very

different view of american sovereignty that the long line of presidents certainly since franklin roosevelt. in some respects, he harks back to woodrow wilson in his devotion to multilateralism as a process and as an outcome. but i think it goes beyond that as well. president obama, for example, said in september of last year in the general assembly. it is my deeply held belief in the year 2009, more than at any point in human history, the interest of nations and peoples are shared. and in an error where our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero sum game. no nation can or should try to dominate another nation. november world order that elevates one nation or group or people over another will succeed . no balance of power among nations will hold.

this is a view that essentially says america is one of the 1 2e9d -- 192 members of the united nations. it's not one where we should be elevated over or balance of power or politics applies anymore. i think this view of america's role in the world with stems in part from the president's lack of support for the concept of american exceptionalism, a distinction which moves him away from the long line of american president. he was asked about his view of the american exceptionalism during his first trip to europe. and president obama in response to a question said i believe in american exceptionalism. that was the first 1/3 of the senate that he gave as an answer. now let me lead the last 2/3. just as i suspect the brits believe in british exceptionalism and the greeks believe in greek

exceptionalism. there are 192 members of the united nations. the president certainly could gone on to say just as the ecuadorians believe in ecuadorian exceptionalism, and just as the guinea's believe. option if everybody is exceptional, then nobody is. this is the u.s. is simply one player among many. and i think the observation of the president's view is one that has been very widely perceived. and i would just refer to the commentary that evan thomas in editor "newsweek" gave on the d-day and virosa. commenting on the obama and

comparing to president reagan at the 40th anniversary, evan thomas of "newsweek" said the following. we were the good guys in 1984. it felt that way. it hasn't felt that way in recent years. i believe you in the audience haven't felt like good guys in recent years. it's a thing about the media in this country. but it hasn't felt that way in recent years. so obama's had really a different task. reagan was all about america. obama is we are above that now. we are not just parochial. we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just prevention, we stand for something. i mean in a way, says evan thomas, i mean in a way obama is standing above the country. above the world. he's sort of god. he's going to bring all different sides together.

now even for the mainstream media, the reference to god is a little bit over the top. but leaveing that aside, the notion that obama stands above the country and that into do his view of his role of president is above the country is something i think we should find very troubling. it's doesn't reveal itself in everything that he says. but any stretch of the imagination or in all of his policies. but that basic attitude, i think, is there and should be troubling when we consider it's implications for american sovereig some of them fairly evident, some a continuing question of erosion of sovereignty. they showed the challenges that the u.s. constitutionalism and