The US invasion of Panama on 20 December 1989, authorized by George H.W. Bush under the code name Operation Just Cause, came at a turning point in the history of international politics. As other authors in this book point out, many events of international importance took place in the year 1989, from the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in February to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November. It was a year of transition that shifted the world from a bipolar system, in which the United States and the Soviet Union were the only two superpowers, each with its own political and economical system, to a ‘unipolar moment’. The United States was the sole superpower, and would be able to spread its vision of a ‘new world order’.