The Carter Implosion: Jimmy Carter and the Amateur Style of Diplomacy

The Carter Implosion critically examines the consequences of a U.S. President – instead of confronting problems outside the narrow context of partisan rhetoric–adopting a self-consciously amateur style of diplomacy and leadership. In particular, Spencer focuses on the enormous gulf between the Carter administration’s professed objectives and the tools it was willing to employ to achieve them. The author posits that the problem was not that President Carter proved too liberal or too conservative, but that he and his closest advisors lacked a sophisticated understanding of how nations behave. Because of his naivete, Carter’s promise of inaugurating a new age of American greatness disintegrated by 1980.