Jordan Foreign Policy
The foreign policy that has kept Jordan one of the most internally safe and peaceful as well as one of the most stable governments in the Middle East, consists of three successful strategies.
Jordan Foreign Policy
The foreign policy that has kept Jordan one of the most internally safe and peaceful as well as one of the most stable governments in the Middle East, consists of three successful strategies.
First Strategy
First has been the strong advocacy of a two-state solution based upon the 1967 boundaries Israel and the West Bank, and the rights of Palestinians to either return to the homes they left when Israel was formed, or to receive compensation.Abdullan II has passionately and strenuously advocated adoption of the peace proposal of the Arab League. According to Nasser Judeh, Minister of Foreign Affairs:
“The Arab/Israeli conflict perhaps is also the root cause of many other symptoms around the world that can be dealt with much more effectively if this Arab-Israeli conflict is sorted out. We know what we want. We want a Palestinian state that is independent, viable, contiguous, and we want a safe and secure Israel…His Majesty the King refers to this as the 57-state solution. Everyone wins….
You have the Palestinians who get their state, the
Israelis who get their security. Syrians and Lebanese will get their occupied territory back. And you have normal relations between Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim countries, and you get a region that will be full of opportunity and hope for the future. So we cannot give up.
The second strategy
The second strategy has been to secure major international government-to-government financial support, military support, and development funding to aid Jordan’s economy.
This strategy has been enormously successful; between 1996 and 2008, for example, US aid alone totaled more than $4 bil. USD. In 2008, the United States committed financial, military, and development aid of at least $660 mil. annually for 5 years.
By 2010, this was raised to $842 mil. Total support for development aid alone (excluding military aid) from all sources reached $1.3 bil. USD in 2010.
No one can contest that this aspect of Jordan’s foreign policy benefits everyone in Jordan, and it is hard to contemplate what Jordan’s unemployment and poverty level would look like without it.
“Jordan is at the forefront of the international war on Terror.
The Third Strategy
The third major foreign policy strategy has been to open up markets and attract investors to Jordan by negotiating FTAs;
and qualifying for Special Economic Zones SEZ) where regional industries can locate, produce, and sell to many countries free of customs, duties; tariffs, and quotas; and attracting FDI.
This strategy, too, has kept most critics satisfied with the government’s policies. Other aspects of Jordan’s foreign policy are:
Total cooperation in international efforts to combat terror.
According to Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh:
“Jordan is at the forefront of the international war on Terror, and this has been the case for many, many years. Actually, for the past few decades, Jordan was victimized by… terror and terrorist groups since as far back as the ’60s and the ’70s…[as well as]the latest incident that took place in 2005, when three hotels were attacked in Jordan.”·
Commitment to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Again, according to Judeh:
“Jordan is present in Afghanistan and has been present right from the beginning. We have humanitarian operations there, we have logistical operations, and of course we have operations that target terror and terrorism….
And our presence in Afghanistan will not only continue, but it will be enhanced and increased. And this is, again, as a collective effort with all the countries that are fighting terror and terrorism, but also to pursue our own national interests and to protect our citizens and our land.”
Achieving partnership status and full integration into NATO;
Achieving partnership status and full integration into the EU;