The Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols suggested President-elect Donald Trump is obsessed with seizing the Panama Canal because he has business interests in the region. Recently, Trump has ...

Panama's voters approved a 2006 referendum authorizing a major expansion of the canal to accommodate larger modern cargo ships. The expansion took until 2016 and cost more than $5.2 billion.

The Panama Canal was built by the United States between 1904 and 1913, and opened in 1917. ... The canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, ...

When the Panama Canal was unveiled by the United States in 1914, the roughly 50-mile-long waterway symbolized American power and technological advancement. But the glow of progress soon faded.

The neutrality of the nearly 50-mile canal, through which nearly 15,000 ships transit each year, is enshrined in Panama’s Constitution and is enforced by the autonomous Panama Canal Authority.