Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former president who lived long enough to see Donald Trump elected again but died just before the start of the new year, has a foreign policy legacy that wasn't just defined by his four years in the White House. 

Over the term of his presidency, the former Georgia governor could boast of helping to establish peace between Israel and Egypt and reestablishing relations with China. But by the time he suffered one of the nation's most decisive defeats by President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter still had ambitions that he was not ready to stop pursuing. 

Carter is largely celebrated for the altruistic nature of his post-presidency, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity well into his 90s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his peace negotiations, but some accused the former president of meddling in international affairs without any official title. 

Here's a look Carter's forays on the world stage, both as president and beyond: 

In 1994, Bill Clinton was in office in the midst of a standoff with North Korea over the communist country's nuclear program. The U.S. was floating the idea of sanctions – and even considered a preemptive strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities to destroy their capabilities. 

Carter had received invitations from North Korea to visit, and was eager to try his hand at defusing the situation and hashing out an agreement to unify the north and the south. As Clinton weighed his options, Carter called. He had negotiated the framework of a peace agreement, without authorization. 

Carter had flown to North Korea with a CNN crew and hashed out the deal. He called Clinton to warn him he was about to go on CNN to announce the deal, which infuriated the Clinton White House, according to Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley's book, "The Unfinished Presidency."

Carter also accepted a dinner invitation from Kim Il-Sung, where he stated the U.S. had stopped pursuing sanctions at the U.N., which was untrue. Backed into a corner, Clinton had to accept the peace deal and stop pursuing sanctions. 

Carter’s discussions with leader Kim Il-Sung may have averted conflict with North Korea in the 1990s. The nation, of course, continued pursuing nuclear weapons and acquired them in 2006. 

In the Middle East, Carter declared he could have resolved the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians in a second term, a prospect that has still not been achieved by any president. 

"Had I been elected to a second term, with the prestige and authority and influence and reputation I had in the region, we could have moved to a final solution," he told The New York Times in 2003. 

Throughout the 1990s, Carter befriended Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and coached him on how to appear more moderate to the west, even as Arafat continued to lead attacks on Israel and led the Second Intifada in 2000. 

JIMMY CARTER, PIONEER OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

When President George H.W. Bush decided to launch the Persian Gulf War after Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Carter was vehemently opposed to the idea. Five days before Bush's deadline for Hussein to withdraw, Carter wrote to leaders of nations on the U.N. Security Council and key Arab states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria – imploring them to abandon the U.S. and its war efforts.

"I urge you to call publicly for a delay in the use of force while Arab leaders seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. You may have to forego approval from the White House, but you will find the French, Soviets, and others fully supportive. Also, most Americans will welcome such a move." 

The move prompted former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft to accuse Carter of violating the Logan Act, which says private citizens cannot negotiate with foreign governments. 

In 2008, President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, publicly tore into Carter for meeting with Hamas, a designated terrorist group, after the administration explicitly told him not to. 

Rice told reporters Carter's meeting could confuse the message that the U.S. would not work with Hamas.

"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice said. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

JIMMY CARTER, 39TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DEAD AT 100

Carter, a strong advocate of the Palestinians after his presidency, claimed that Israel's policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa's. 

In 1978, the groundbreaking possibility of Egypt and Israel normalizing relations had screeched to a halt. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt suggested ceasing contact with the Israelis. 

In September of that year, Carter brought Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, where Carter spent more than a week mediating negotiations on an agreement between the two sides. A framework of a treaty known as the Camp David Accords came out of that meeting, and six months later, Egypt became the first Arab state to establish relations with Israel. 

The agreement included the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and a "pathway" for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 after Arab fury over the peace agreement. 

In 1978, following months of secret negotiations, Carter established formal U.S. relations with China, breaking decades of hostility between the two nations. That meant rescinding a defense treaty with Taiwan, where Carter remains a controversial figure. 

It also prompted Congress to pass the Taiwan Relations Act to continue to provide arms to Taiwan and "maintain the capacity to resist" any attempts to take it over. 

In 1979, the Iranian regime’s shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and Carter had a strategic relationship, with Carter quiet on his questionable human rights record even as the shah’s grip on power was slipping. 

Protests had kicked up in Iran over the shah’s oppressive policies, but Carter continued to support him, fearing the alternative: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

Pahlavi fled into exile in January 1979, and Carter initially resisted requests to grant him refuge in the U.S. before allowing him to seek cancer treatment in New York City in October of that year. And on Nov. 4, Iranian students angry at the decision stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages. 

The hostage crisis spanned the rest of Carter’s term and, for many, defined his legacy on the world stage. Without any resolution, in April 1980, Carter moved to a military rescue. 

The mission ended in tragic failure: several helicopters were grounded outside Tehran in a sandstorm, and eight special forces members were killed when their helicopter crashed. Iran then captured U.S. equipment and intelligence. 

The hostages were not released until Jan. 20, 1981 – minutes after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

President-elect Trump has brought Carter's Panama Canal treaties back into the spotlight, musing on Tuesday that offering control of the canal to Panama lost Carter the 1980 election.

Despite fierce opposition from the right, Carter believed returning the canal would improve U.S. relations in Latin America and ensure peace between U.S. shipping lanes, fearing that opposition to U.S. control could lead to violence on the waterway. 

"It’s obvious that we cheated the Panamanians out of their canal," Carter wrote in a diary. But he'd also received intelligence that it could take up 100,000 troops to defend the canal in the event of an uprising. 

In recent days, Trump has suggested taking the canal back – claiming the U.S. is paying too much to use it, and it is controlled by China. 

"Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a big reason why Jimmy Carter lost the election, even more so than the hostages," Trump said. 

Leaders across the globe are expressing their condolences as the U.S. mourns the death of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel took to X to give his commiserations in the wake of Carter’s death, writing, "Condolences to the people and government of the United States, especially to the family and loved ones of President James Carter. Our people will remember with gratitude his efforts to improve relations, his visits to Cuba and his statement in favor of the freedom of the (Cuban) Five."

In his one term in the White House, Carter struck the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, helped take the world further from nuclear proliferation with the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), signed the Panama Canal Treaties, which ended a century of direct American control over the crucial canal, and deregulated the nation's airline industry.

JIMMY CARTER, 39TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DEAD AT 100

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions when dealing with international conflicts, leaving many world leaders to applaud his work promoting economic and social development as well as human rights.

"We express our heartfelt condolences to the American people and to the family of former US President Jimmy Carter on his passing. He was a leader who served during a time when Ukraine was not yet independent, yet his heart stood firmly with us in our ongoing fight for freedom. We deeply appreciate his steadfast commitment to Christian faith and democratic values, as well as his unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unprovoked aggression. He devoted his life to promoting peace in the world and defending human rights. Today, let us remember: peace matters, and the world must remain united in standing against those who threaten these values. May his memory be eternal," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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The Royal Family also took to social media to express their sorrow, with King Charles writing: 

"It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of former President Carter. He was a committed public servant, and devoted his life to promoting peace and human rights. His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977. My thoughts and prayers are with President Carter’s family and the American people at this time."

Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz joined in writing on X, "We join our American friends in mourning the loss of their former President Jimmy Carter. The US has lost a committed fighter for democracy. The world has lost a great mediator for peace in the Middle East and for human rights."

Carter died at his home in Georgia surrounded by his family.

"My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs."

In his one term in the White House, the late President Jimmy Carter struck the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, helped take the world further from nuclear proliferation with the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), signed the Panama Canal Treaties, which ended a century of direct American control over the crucial canal, and deregulated the nation's airline industry.

But Carter, a former Georgia governor who defeated Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, also confronted the socialist Nicaraguan revolution in Central America and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which led to a resumption of Cold War tensions with Moscow and an embargo of the 1980 Summer Olympics by the U.S. And domestically, the one-term Democratic president battled massive inflation known as stagflation, and an energy crisis that led to the return of gas lines across the country.

As Carter struggled to cope with multiple domestic and international crises, the then-president went on national television in July 1979 to deliver what was titled "the crisis confidence" address, but was later dubbed the "malaise" speech, even though the world malaise never appeared in Carter’s actual address.

Carter called for Americans to return to a sense of civic duty that would unify the country through a call for shared sacrifice for the common good of the nation. While initially giving the president a boost in the polls, the goodwill was short-lived. A couple of days after the address, Carter fired several members of his cabinet and was unable going forward to be seen as a strong and effective leader.

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Adding to Carter’s woes, was the overrunning of the American embassy in Tehran in the late autumn of 1979, which triggered the more than yearlong Iranian hostage crisis. 

Carter, politically weakened by a fierce and nearly successful primary challenge by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, was crushed by GOP nominee Ronald Reagan in the general election, with the former California governor sweeping 44 of the 50 states.

Historian and author Craig Shirley, who wrote multiple books about Reagan and Carter, pointed to the economic conditions at the time as a major contributor to Carter’s demise.

"Interest rates were something like 18%. Inflation was almost as high. The value of a dollar wasn’t worth today what it was yesterday. It was really devastating to people’s savings," Shirley spotlighted in a C-SPAN interview a few years ago.

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Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, president of New England College, concurred.

"While it is certainly true that the Carter Administration had its share of successes, such as the Camp David Accords and the Panama Canal Treaty, in the months leading up to the 1980 election, voters were focused on high inflation, low economic growth, an energy crisis and the growing perception that American power and influence in the world was in decline," Lesperance said.

"The Iran hostage crisis and failed rescue attempt punctuated the feeling that the U.S. under Carter had become a paper tiger. Americans wanted John Wayne. They elected Ronald Reagan whose campaign projected strength, confidence, humor, and a nostalgic appeal to an America as the proverbial shining city on a hill," he emphasized.

But it’s the "malaise" speech that still stands out more than four decades after Carter’s stinging rejection by American voters.

"Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency would be known for many things: stagflation, a terrible economy, weakness in the face of Soviet advances, but also the Camp David Accords and ushering in the Age of Reagan. Yet to his everlasting chagrin, Carter’s failed four years in office will always be reduced to the word "malaise," and his awful, terrible, embarrassing speech in July of 1979," Shirley wrote on the 40-year anniversary of the infamous address.

Jimmy Carter, the nation’s 39th president, has died at the age of 100. He served a single term as president, but he also will be remembered for his decades of humanitarian work. 

Those who knew him – opponents and supporters alike – described him as a man of integrity, whatever flaws he may have had as president. 

"When we look at the whole thrust of Jimmy Carter’s life, it’s an amazing American story," Douglas Brinkley, author of The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House, told Fox News Digital. 

"He grew up with no electricity, went to work in the… Navy. He became President of the United States at the height of the Cold War and won the Nobel Prize for his post-presidency," Brinkley said. "All the time, his ambitious humanity was aimed at trying to make sure that everybody he came in contact with, had a better, fair shake at life." 

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A peanut farmer and former one-term governor of Georgia, Carter beat the odds and was elected president in 1977. 

"Nobody thought Carter could procure the Democratic nomination. But Carter had a unique amount of bulldog tenacity [and] gumshoe perseverance," Brinkley said. 

His campaign befuddled Democrats, as Carter was deeply religious and ran to the right of his Republican opponent, Gerald Ford, on some social issues. As a Washington outsider, Carter’s agricultural background and accent endeared him to the deep south. 

He took office at a time when Watergate, the Vietnam War, and stagflation had left the country in a sour mood. In Washington, his populist campaign inevitably collided with establishment Democrats who never fully accepted Carter. 

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"He never had a full grip on his own Democratic Party. Ted Kennedy liberals didn’t like Carter, and the Scoop Jackson Cold War hawks didn’t like him," Brinkley said. "So, he was kind of an island unto himself as president." 

Carter’s foreign policy wins included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for nearly two weeks in 1978. At home, Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad, and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy and the Federal Emergency Manager Agency. 

Carter designated millions of acres in Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges and he appointed a then-record number of women and non-whites to federal posts. He also built on Nixon’s opening with China and pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. 

Yet, his president was also marked by double-digit inflation, long gasoline lines, and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat. 

Carter was also crippled by his – as Brinkley put it – "lack of communication chops." Oratory, Brinkley said, was not his strong suit. 

In 1979, Carter delivered his famous "Crisis of Confidence" speech in which he lamented that the United States, once a nation "proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God" had descended into "self-indulgence and consumption."

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"Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning," Carter said. "We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose." 

Craig Shirley, a Reagan biographer and historian, recalled watching the speech while working for a senator on Capitol Hill. 

"I remember watching it that Sunday night and feeling for the first time in my life, I felt scared as an American. The speech was such a downer. It was so depressing," Shirley said. "A president is supposed to tell the truth to the American people, but also appeal to the American people’s hopes and aspirations and not their worst feelings or desires." 

Carter ultimately served a single, tumultuous term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980. 

But whatever flaws his presidency may have had, Carter will perhaps be most fondly remembered for the decades he spent post-presidency advocating for democracy, public health, and human rights via The Carter Center. 

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The Center, which Carter opened with his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982, has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring at least 113 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989. In perhaps its most widely hailed public health effort, the organization recently announced that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. Carter's work with the Center garnered a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. 

For his humanitarian work, Shirley argued, Carter will be remembered as "one of the best ex-presidents of the 20th century." 

"Carter really wasn’t for PR stunts. He really threw himself into his charitable works and did so for many years," Shirley said. 

"We’re going to remember him kindly. He was a terrific former president with what he did with the Carter Center and the various initiatives around the country. His book writing stands out [as does] his charitable works. So, he goes down in his history as an extraordinarily good, former president."  

The Associated Press contributed to this report.