Panama promotes itself “as the bridge of the world, heart of the universe” but lately the narrow Central American Isthmus and its namesake canal that joins the Atlantic to the Pacific have become the setting for a bitter clash between the world’s two preeminent economic superpowers.

The United States has reaffirmed Panamas sovereignty over the Panama Canal during U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths recent visit, the first by a Pentagon chief in decades. Despite strong rhetoric from Washington,