Jordan - Security Policy

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is central to the geopolitics of the Middle East region and borders on Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Palestinian West Bank. This geography also places the Jordanians adjacent to major centers of actual and potential conflict: (1) the Israel-Palestine theater, (2) the Iraq/Gulf theater, and (3) Syria. Although it has an important geographical position, Jordan is also a relatively small country (about the size of Indiana) with only around 6 million citizens. It has limited natural resources and no oil, leaving the Jordanians with uncertain leverage to influence regional events.

Following the Great War and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations awarded Britain the mandate to govern much of the Middle East. Britain demarcated a semi-autonomous region of Transjordan from Palestine in the early 1920s. The area gained its independence in 1946 and thereafter became The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The country’s long-time ruler, King HUSSEIN (1953-99), successfully navigated competing pressures from the major powers (US, USSR, and UK), various Arab states, Israel, and a large internal Palestinian population.

Jordan lost the West Bank to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. King HUSSEIN in 1988 permanently relinquished Jordanian claims to the West Bank; in 1994 he signed a peace treaty with Israel. King ABDALLAH II, King HUSSEIN’s eldest son, assumed the throne following his father’s death in 1999. He implemented modest political and economic reforms, but in the wake of the “Arab Revolution” across the Middle East, Jordanians continue to press for further political liberalization, government reforms, and economic improvements.

To the extent possible, Amman has sought to remain engaged with all of its neighbors and head off any potential problems before they can develop into a crisis. Hostile neighbors can be particularly problematic for a small country like Jordan, and when considering policy options, the Jordanians often draw from their unpleasant experience of severe regional isolation at some key times in the region’s history. Additionally, throughout its existence, Jordan has depended heavily on foreign aid to support its often fragile economy. In recent years, such aid has been provided by a diversity of donors including Arab states, the European Union, and especially the United States.

The United States Government (USG) has provided security assistance to the government of Jordan for seven decades. This security assistance has taken the form of grants, loans, training, drawdown equipment, commercial sales, and other items. The goals and objectives of the security assistance program to Jordan have not changed significantly over the years. In 1956, the Eisenhower administration believed that “maintaining a stable, pro-Western government in Jordan . . . [is] a prerequisite to resolving the Palestinian problem and undermining the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Jordan [is] not considered important for its own sake [Israel and Egypt are more important as nations to the US].

Among the various social, economic, and political institutions affecting Jordanian national life, none — with the exceptions of the monarchy itself and the Muslim religion — has been more pervasive than the presence and power of the armed forces. This condition has persisted since the formation of the first military units early in the country's political evolution. Soon after becoming king in 1953, Hussein remarked that "everywhere I go in Jordan I find the Arab Legion doing everything." Throughout Hussein's reign, the armed forces have been an indispensable instrument for the protection of the monarchy. The government has periodically turned to the army to prevent internal disruption and to maintain law and order. The loyalty of the army during periods of stress has permitted the king latitude in the conduct of foreign policy by offsetting domestic constraints on his actions.

Since the 1957 coup attempt, the armed forces have conducted themselves in a professional manner, accepting their subordination to civil legal authority. No officer caste has developed with ambitions to interfere with or dominate the government, although the king has called upon trusted individual officers to serve in important civilian posts. The continued acceptance by the military of Hussein's political and religious legitimacy has been a foundation stone of national stability. Authorities on Jordanian politics believed that, in the event of the king's death, the army would act to guarantee the legitimate Hashimite succession.

Since before independence, Jordan had a tradition of maintaining a strong military relationship with the West, beginning with Britain and extending into the present with the United States. Throughout the Cold War era, U.S. military aid to Jordan was complicated as a result of their differing relations vis-à-vis Israel, so Jordan often had to seek assistance from other sources, including the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia. After the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel in 1994, military aid from the United States (currently Jordan’s main foreign backer) began flowing in earnest, with substantial quantitative and qualitative increases after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and Jordan’s subsequent support for coalition operations inside Iraq after March 2003. Overall U.S. military assistance to Jordan was approximately US$207 million in 2005, down from a high of US$606 million in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

The kingdom has formal security agreements with the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey and has conducted joint military maneuvers with Egypt, the Gulf Cooperation Council, France, Oman, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Additionally, Turkey allows Jordan the use of its airspace and facilities for training its pilots, and the United Kingdom provides Jordan additional military training as well.

For its part, the Jordanian Special Operations Command provides training to many of the region’s Special Forces, such as those from Algeria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in Iraq, Jordan has provided the new Iraqi government with various arms transfers and military equipment to support the fledgling Iraqi security forces in addition to training Iraqi police recruits inside Jordan.

With the conclusion of a peace accord with Israel in 1994 and the rapprochement with Syria over the past five years, the external threats that Jordan currently faces are in some respects at their lowest ebb since before independence. Moreover, the 2003 removal of Saddam Hussein and his regime has eliminated an erratic and potentially hostile neighboring threat. Nevertheless, the current climate in the Middle East does not lend itself to stability and has the potential to affect Jordan’s security. The Iraqi government is still weak, and if the effort to build a viable state there fails, the ensuing security vacuum and anarchy could have a destabilizing spillover effect on Jordan. In 2006 Jordan reportedly was taking steps to strengthen security along its border with Iraq as a result of concerns about escalating violence and instability in Iraq.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains a persistent threat to Jordan’s wellbeing. Any outbreak of hostilities, such as the July 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, places Jordan in the delicate position of advocating strongly for Palestinian rights and a peaceful solution, while at the same time remaining closely aligned with the United States and peaceable toward Israel. Jordan is wary of the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority following Jordan’s May 2006 arrest of several Hamas operatives allegedly planning operations in Jordan. Economic and humanitarian difficulties in the Palestinian territories could involve Jordan with the problems of refugees and angry public sentiment, a development that could be destabilizing inside the kingdom. Additionally, the Iranian nuclear program has raised concerns throughout the Middle East and in the international community. Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is a growing risk; Jordanian neighbors such as Egypt, Turkey, or even Saudi Arabia could in turn feel threatened by an Iranian nuclear capability and attempt to develop their own indigenous nuclear programs.