Washington’s increasing focus on promoting international investment and trade is evident in the smorgasbord of assistance offered to U.S. exporters.

In the rush to pass tough spending cuts, Congress and the Clinton administration are avoiding making an obvious choice: welfare over warfare.

In the immigration debate, free marketers square off against cultural conservatives on the right side of the political spectrum; while on the left, civil rights and ethnic advocacy groups oppose environmentalists and job protectionists.

U.S.-Nicaraguan relations have been rocky ever since the end of the U.S.-sponsored war against the Sandinista government.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) sets guidelines for the elimination of most trade and investment barriers between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico over a 15-year period.

The U.S. military did not foresee an end of the cold war and was caught without a new strategy when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Central America’s modern history is marked by widespread poverty, stark inequalities, political instability, and violent repression.

Since the early 1980s Washington has sought to break down all barriers to U.S. trade and investment in Mexico.

The last fifteen years have seen an unprecedented decline in the standard of living of the world’s rural poor, and a related upsurge in both internal and international migration as people search for options.

Since 1994 U.S. statements regarding a newly democratic South Africa, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) have frequently been cast in the language of a love fest.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a wholly owned government corporation established in 1971, provides taxpayer-backed and taxpayer-funded loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to businesses for investments in “politically risky” countries.

The U.S. views Libya and Sudan as rogue states that should be contained by providing U.S. military aid to neighboring countries.

The unquiet legacy of foreign intervention still casts a long shadow over U.S. policy in Indochina.