Jimmy Carter
Template:Stub Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States of America following Gerald Ford and preceding Ronald Reagan. He was a Democrat who served from 1977-1981, after being the Governor of Georgia. During his presidency he experienced many trying problems such as inflation, energy crisis and worst of all,the taking of American citizens as hostages by Iran.
Despite the shortcomings of his presidency, Carter has remained one of the most active ex-president's of modern times. His continued work mediating international disputes, organizing election observations, and working with organizations on disease and hunger, were cited when he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. In his Nobel lecture given upon reciept of the honor Carter showed his thinking now parallels his predessors more so than when he supplanted collective security concerns with a human rights policy when he originally took office. As Carter noted in his Novel Lecture:
- Our president, Woodrow Wilson, was honored here for promoting the League of Nations, whose two basic concepts were profoundly important: "collective security" and "self-determination." Now they are embedded in international law. Violations of these premises during the last half-century have been tragic failures, as was vividly demonstrated when the Soviet Union attempted to conquer Afghanistan and when Iraq invaded Kuwait. [1]
This was peculiar in that up until very recently Europeans have been reluctant to view conflicts outside of Europe as being a concern of NATO.
References
- â Text of Carter's Nobel Lecture Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, 2002.