The Future of the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal, one of the world’s greatest engineering feats, remains a vital shortcut for global shipping more than a century after its construction. It is the lifeblood of the Panamanian economy, generating $5 billion in the last fiscal year. It is also a vital commercial artery for the United States, its top user.
Today, however, the Panama Canal faces challenges to its long-term viability. Climate change has led to prolonged droughts that in recent months resulted in restrictions to the number and size of ships permitted to cross the isthmus. The best solution, a new reservoir, would require $1.6 billion and six years to construct. In the meantime, the new US authorities have raised concerns about rising tolls and the control by a Chinese company of two ports in Panama. These challenges, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent trip to the Miraflores locks, have brought growing global attention to the Panama Canal.
Join the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program on Thursday, February 13, 2025, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am ET, for an in-person conversation with the Former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, Alberto Alemán Zubieta, and former US Ambassador to Panama John Feeley. We will discuss the future of this global trade hub amid complex operational and geostrategic hurdles.
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Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition
The Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition works to shape conversations and inspire meaningful action to strengthen technology, trade, infrastructure, and energy as part of American economic and global leadership that benefits the nation and the world. Read more