Description: Human rights and détente inextricably intertwined during Carter's years. By promoting human rights in the USSR, Carter sought to build a domestic consensus for détente; through bipolar dialogue, he tried to advance human rights in the USSR. But, human rights contributed to the erosion of détente without achieving a lasting domestic consensus.
Review Quotes:
'Readers looking for a nuanced and informative study will not be disappointed. Utilizing a wide array of archival research, Tulli recounts Carter's efforts to promote human rights in the Soviet Union, which intersected with
détente. While such arguments are not as novel as Tulli suggests, A Precarious Equilibrium still makes an important contribution to explaining how Carter waged the Cold War.'
Christian Philip Peterson, Ferris State University, Journal of Contemporary History 57(1)