When the subject of Jimmy Carter’s record in the international arena comes up, the first thing that comes to mind for many people is his championing of a “human rights agenda” for US foreign policy.

But Carter was also very much a Cold War president. The great theme of the first half of his term in office was his effort to reduce tensions with the Soviets through a policy of détente and negotiation, while the great theme of the second half was the unravelling of that position and Carter’s rapid U-turn toward a much more hawkish and aggressive stance.

In his highly praised book The Second Cold War: Carter, Reagan, and the Politics of Foreign Policy, historian Aaron Donaghy retells the story of that period, arguing that in both the case of Carter’s turn to a hard anti-Soviet line and Ronald Reagan’s partial retreat from that policy after an initial period of intense belligerence, the driving force was always concerns about domestic politics.