U.S.National Security and Panama

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF AMERICAN-PANAMANIAN

In the process of throwing off the Spanish yoke more than 150 years ago, the territories of northern South America and southern Central America formed the country of Gran Colombia (Meditz & Hanratty, 1989). The territory of the contemporary state of Panama was a part of the Panama Department of Gran Colombia.

The people who lived in the Panama Department had, or at least displayed, no strong sense of national identity at that time. Political opportunists, however, attempted, for personal financial gain, on three occasions to establish an independent state in Panama (Meditz & Hanratty, 1989).

The opening of the American west brought new pressures to Panama, because a safer, quicker, and cheaper transport route from the American east to the

. . .
enjoyed by the residents of the developed countries. At that same time, commercial banks in the developed countries were awash in money. The successful strategies of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the 1970s have resulted in the transfer of enormous volumes of money from the developed countries to the OPEC countries. The OPEC countries required safe havens for their newly acquired capital, and banks in the developed countries provided those havens. The banks in the developed countries, after acquiring the OPEC money, needed borrowers for massive amounts of capital. The union of OPEC money and developing countries, with western banks as marriage broker, thus, appeared to be heaven-sent. The banks, in their eagerness to loan money, made the most optimistic assumptions possible with respect to risk, with the result that (1) they loaned too much to risky borrowers, and (2) many countries borrowed too much. Many analysts view the external debt as essential for continued development in the region; however, all analysts recognize the complexity it has introduced into the stabilization efforts. The debt load of developing countries creates problems associated with economic stabilization in the best of
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Reagan Administration, Meditz Hanratty, Countries OPEC, SANCTIONS Economic, World Bank, Republic Panama, Standoff Panama, CONCLUSIONS Economic, Ambassador Kirkpatrick's, Isthmus Panama, economic sanctions, reagan administration, meditz hanratty, hanratty 1989, meditz hanratty 1989, external debt, standoff panama 1989, standoff panama, sanctions imposed, panama 1989, sanctions panama, panama 1988, economic sanctions imposed, economic sanctions panama, american economic sanctions,
Approximate Word count = 3536
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

More Essays on U.S.National Security and Panama