Jimmy Carter was a master of conflict resolution

On 29 December, former US president Jimmy Carter died peacefully at his ranch house in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100. Over the last few years, most people knew him as the old head of state in the rocking chair, surrounded by family and friends, whose sense of morality and numerous good works were the stuff of legends. Whether it was building houses for the poor or establishing an institution that monitored elections around the world, nobody could accuse Carter of living an unproductive life after the presidency.

The former peanut farmer from Georgia, however, was also given a bad wrap. He is frequently remembered as the bumbler whose one-term in office was weak and ineffectual. As a middle school student, we were often led to believe that Carter was one of the worst presidents in modern US history. So many problems and crises occurred on his watch – high inflation and unemployment, the ransacking of the US embassy in Iran, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, inadequate energy supplies and long lines at the gas station – that someone who didn’t bother looking deeply at the man’s record would assume this label was justifiable.