This book uses a complex interdependence model to explain U.S. policy on international debt between 1981 and 1985. The author analyzes four cases: the administration's decision in early 1982 to pay interest due from Poland to U.S. banks on hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural credits; the administration's actions to prevent a default by Mexico on its international debt; the decision by Reagan officials to support an increase of $8.4 billion in the U.S. share of the lending quota for the International Monetary Fund; and the 'Plan for Sustained Growth' designed to increase dramatically the amount of money lent to developing countries.