Abstract
The Hong Kong Nicaragua Development Company’s plan to build an interoceanic canal through Nicaragua represents the most recent of twenty-three such proposals over the course of the last two centuries. While CEO Wang Jing’s declining fortune may prevent the construction of a canal, Nicaragua’s eroded relations with Costa Rica and Colombia, a renewed relationship with Russian, and recent steps towards remilitarization have impacted and will continue to impact the region. These changes, in turn, reflect an inversion of earlier plans to build a canal. While the international stage of the 19th and early 20th centuries permitted various foreign actors to define the political and economic development of Nicaragua, recent events reflect a changing situation
in which Nicaragua has redefined relations with its most immediate neighbors and with key global powers.
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