The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has been officially in business since January 19, 1971. Its major purpose is to reorganise and widen the scope of programmes for the promotion of US private investment overseas in developing countries.

The developing countries are caught in the cleft stick of assertion of national interests and independence, on one side, and need for an improved investment climate to attract foreign direct investment, on the other. The question facing the foreign firms is how they can safeguard their capital...