The King’s stop at the Chamber capped off a multi-day visit - which included his appointed Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh - to Washington, DC that seemed to have dual objectives. The first was to lend a boost to the struggling domestic economy by pursuing additional financial assistance and promoting Jordan as a destination for investment. That ambition was underscored in his comments to the business association, where he noted that while the Arab Spring has been economically damaging, by weakening investor confidence and reducing tourism revenues, it has also “opened new economic and investment opportunities.”
The monarch envisions Jordan as “stable and a reliable gateway” to countries with tremendous needs having emerged from the dramatic changes of the past year. He emphasized that “they are eager to rebuild and relaunch and forge new partnerships,” and offered that with its strategic position and market access to over 8 billion consumers through their trade and investment agreements, Jordan can be “an open bridge between you and them,” i.e. between U.S. businesses and potentially rewarding markets and investment opportunities.
In introducing His Majesty, the Chamber’s CEO and President Tom Donohue praised Abdullah for striving to “advance a reform agenda to encourage broad-based economic growth to improve the lives of Jordan’s citizens.” Donohue credited the King for modernizing the tax code to make Jordan more attractive to foreign investment, championing Jordan’s ascension to the World Trade Organization, and leading the first Arab country to sign a free trade agreement with the United States.
Noting the King’s goal of reducing unemployment from 13 percent to 6 percent and achieving real GDP growth of 7 percent over the next 10 years, Donohue stressed the commercial ties between the two nations and affirmed that “the American business community is ready to invest more time, more resource, and more effort in Jordan to assure a mutually economic success.”
Earlier in the week, King Abdullah met with President Barack Obama and discussed, among other things, ways the U.S. can be supportive of his economic efforts. From the White House, the President announced, “we have mobilized several hundreds of millions of dollars through OPIC, and that will leverage ultimately about $1 billion for economic development inside Jordan.” His Majesty also met with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner to discuss bilateral economic ties and the possibility of providing assistance to Jordan under the G-8 led Deauville initiative, which is intended to provide financial assistance through aid and development credits, conditional on political and economic reforms, to countries affected by the Arab Spring.
Beyond economic relations, much of the focus of discussion in King Abdullah’s meetings with President Obama, Congressional leaders, and other Administration officials, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, centered on a range political and security issues in the region. This fulfilled the other objective of enhancing the His Majesty’s stature as both a pivotal, leading political figure and a key ally in what is a geopolitically critical region.
In comparison to regimes in the region that have fallen subsequent to popular protests and bloodshed, and those currently mired in violence and uncertainty, Jordan’s Arab Spring experience has been mild. Unlike demonstrations elsewhere in the region, regime change has not been the clarion call of the protestors in Jordan, who are instead focused on reforms creating a more representative and pluralistic political system, tackling corruption, and redressing social and economic inequities, particularly high unemployment.
In February 2011, King Abdullah responded to protests by firing his prime minister and promising economic and political reforms. In a June 2011 nationally televised address, he provided a hopeful yet indefinite reform outline guaranteeing “the fairness and transparency of the electoral process through a mechanism that will lead to a parliament with active political party representation; one that allows the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority and political party manifestos in the future.”
A specific timeline for such reforms has not been delivered yet, and reforms providing an actual representative and open political process have long been resisted by the palace and its traditional allies among the Bedouin tribes concerned with empowering Jordan’s Palestinian majority. But the pressure for reform via the demonstrations is largely being driven by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, as well as secularists and leftists who have focused on governance and economic issues rather than Palestinian disenfranchisement and discrimination.
President Obama and other political leaders heaped admiration on Jordan’s reform agenda and cooperation in security matters and combating terrorism. The President commented, “His Majesty discussed the reform efforts that are taking place inside Jordan as well, and we welcome the initiatives that His Majesty has already embarked on, and feel confident that, to the extent that he’s able to move these reforms forward, this will be good for the security and stability of Jordan…And so we’re very pleased to support him on that front.”
While Jordan is a key American ally and viewed as a more secular, stable and moderate state, it is still far from a free environment according to Freedom House, a non-partisan organization supporting global freedom. On the same day as the monarch’s speech at the U.S. Chamber, Freedom House issued its Freedom in the World 2012 report. The Hashemite Kingdom earned a “Not Free” status, which is explained as a country “where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.” Jordan received scores of 6 and 5 respectively regarding political rights and civil liberties on a scale of 1-7 with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating.
Considering its neighborhood — to the north, a brutal crackdown by Syrian President Assad that has led to thousands dead; to the west, the West Bank which is home to millions of Palestinians enveloped in an intractable conflict with Israel; and to the east, an uncertain and tenuous future for Iraq — it is entirely understandable that given this context King Abdullah has been deemed by U.S. administrations, past and present, as a reasonable, steady and cautious moderate.
The King, who has ruled since 1999, also drew praise for his efforts at advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Donohue observed, “His Majesty has been instrumental in moving the Middle East peace talks forward. And Jordan has recently played host to the first direct meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators since 2010. And that’s a hopeful development.”
Given Jordan’s demographics, it is no surprise that Abdullah has taken such a prominent role in trying to pull the peace process forward by hosting three meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Demonstrating leadership on an issue vital and deeply personal to so many in Jordan is a smart political move. Jordan’s own 1994 treaty with Israel made it the second and only other Arab nation, in addition to Egypt, to have such an agreement.
A lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and ultimately the creation of a Palestinian state coupled with a politically empowered Palestinian majority would likely foster greater domestic turbulence for the King and could even weaken the durability of their peace treaty with Israel which any movement away from could endanger its strong ties and support from the United States.
The effort by the King to refocus attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could also been seen as an attempt to steer the spotlight away from the Arab Spring and democratization wave sweeping the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In a Wall Street Journal piece, King Abdullah wrote, “Make no mistake about it: The Palestinian right to statehood and their cry for justice and a homeland free of occupation remain the Arab people’s foremost cause.” Such rhetoric may play well with Jordan’s Palestinians and it does remain an important issue for Arabs; however, those who have been marching and dying in the streets of cities and towns across MENA may disagree that it is the “foremost” cause.
This downplaying of the democratization movement fits well with the so-called counter revolution orchestrated by monarchies across the Middle East hoping to avoid sweeping changes and essentially maintain the status quo domestically. And it is seemingly one of the reasons that the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has invited Jordan (and Morocco) to join the GCC, which is comprised of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. The tactical step can be seen as a move by the monarchies to circle their proverbial wagons and stand united as a counter to the transformative change of the Arab Spring. It also strengthens the alliance which has serious concerns about the threat posed by Iran. And for Jordan it means an much-needed infusion of financial assistance.
In concluding his remarks at the U.S. Chamber, King Abdullah said, “We look at 2012 as being a year of opportunity…We have tremendous hope for 2012.” During this latest trip to Washington, DC, the monarch tried to answer the question "Quo Vadis?" The answer seemed to be: reform, reform, reform. The King spoke to a group of Jordanian expatriates relating that his comprehensive reforms will be “a unique reform model for the whole region that would be a source of pride for all Jordanians.” But whether the reality matches the rhetoric by advancing ground-breaking and not merely cosmetic reforms remains still to be determined. What should become evident in 2012 is whether these promised economic and political reforms will be enough to revive the economy and assuage the demands of Jordan’s protestors. These answers will go a long way to influencing where Jordan is going and what its future looks like.
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Jordan, Quo Vadis?
January 26, 2012
The King’s stop at the Chamber capped off a multi-day visit - which included his appointed Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh - to Washington, DC that seemed to have dual objectives. The first was to lend a boost to the struggling domestic economy by pursuing additional financial assistance and promoting Jordan as a destination for investment. That ambition was underscored in his comments to the business association, where he noted that while the Arab Spring has been economically damaging, by weakening investor confidence and reducing tourism revenues, it has also “opened new economic and investment opportunities.”
The monarch envisions Jordan as “stable and a reliable gateway” to countries with tremendous needs having emerged from the dramatic changes of the past year. He emphasized that “they are eager to rebuild and relaunch and forge new partnerships,” and offered that with its strategic position and market access to over 8 billion consumers through their trade and investment agreements, Jordan can be “an open bridge between you and them,” i.e. between U.S. businesses and potentially rewarding markets and investment opportunities.
In introducing His Majesty, the Chamber’s CEO and President Tom Donohue praised Abdullah for striving to “advance a reform agenda to encourage broad-based economic growth to improve the lives of Jordan’s citizens.” Donohue credited the King for modernizing the tax code to make Jordan more attractive to foreign investment, championing Jordan’s ascension to the World Trade Organization, and leading the first Arab country to sign a free trade agreement with the United States.
Noting the King’s goal of reducing unemployment from 13 percent to 6 percent and achieving real GDP growth of 7 percent over the next 10 years, Donohue stressed the commercial ties between the two nations and affirmed that “the American business community is ready to invest more time, more resource, and more effort in Jordan to assure a mutually economic success.”
Earlier in the week, King Abdullah met with President Barack Obama and discussed, among other things, ways the U.S. can be supportive of his economic efforts. From the White House, the President announced, “we have mobilized several hundreds of millions of dollars through OPIC, and that will leverage ultimately about $1 billion for economic development inside Jordan.” His Majesty also met with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner to discuss bilateral economic ties and the possibility of providing assistance to Jordan under the G-8 led Deauville initiative, which is intended to provide financial assistance through aid and development credits, conditional on political and economic reforms, to countries affected by the Arab Spring.
Beyond economic relations, much of the focus of discussion in King Abdullah’s meetings with President Obama, Congressional leaders, and other Administration officials, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, centered on a range political and security issues in the region. This fulfilled the other objective of enhancing the His Majesty’s stature as both a pivotal, leading political figure and a key ally in what is a geopolitically critical region.
In comparison to regimes in the region that have fallen subsequent to popular protests and bloodshed, and those currently mired in violence and uncertainty, Jordan’s Arab Spring experience has been mild. Unlike demonstrations elsewhere in the region, regime change has not been the clarion call of the protestors in Jordan, who are instead focused on reforms creating a more representative and pluralistic political system, tackling corruption, and redressing social and economic inequities, particularly high unemployment.
In February 2011, King Abdullah responded to protests by firing his prime minister and promising economic and political reforms. In a June 2011 nationally televised address, he provided a hopeful yet indefinite reform outline guaranteeing “the fairness and transparency of the electoral process through a mechanism that will lead to a parliament with active political party representation; one that allows the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority and political party manifestos in the future.”
A specific timeline for such reforms has not been delivered yet, and reforms providing an actual representative and open political process have long been resisted by the palace and its traditional allies among the Bedouin tribes concerned with empowering Jordan’s Palestinian majority. But the pressure for reform via the demonstrations is largely being driven by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, as well as secularists and leftists who have focused on governance and economic issues rather than Palestinian disenfranchisement and discrimination.
President Obama and other political leaders heaped admiration on Jordan’s reform agenda and cooperation in security matters and combating terrorism. The President commented, “His Majesty discussed the reform efforts that are taking place inside Jordan as well, and we welcome the initiatives that His Majesty has already embarked on, and feel confident that, to the extent that he’s able to move these reforms forward, this will be good for the security and stability of Jordan…And so we’re very pleased to support him on that front.”
While Jordan is a key American ally and viewed as a more secular, stable and moderate state, it is still far from a free environment according to Freedom House, a non-partisan organization supporting global freedom. On the same day as the monarch’s speech at the U.S. Chamber, Freedom House issued its Freedom in the World 2012 report. The Hashemite Kingdom earned a “Not Free” status, which is explained as a country “where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.” Jordan received scores of 6 and 5 respectively regarding political rights and civil liberties on a scale of 1-7 with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating.
Considering its neighborhood — to the north, a brutal crackdown by Syrian President Assad that has led to thousands dead; to the west, the West Bank which is home to millions of Palestinians enveloped in an intractable conflict with Israel; and to the east, an uncertain and tenuous future for Iraq — it is entirely understandable that given this context King Abdullah has been deemed by U.S. administrations, past and present, as a reasonable, steady and cautious moderate.
The King, who has ruled since 1999, also drew praise for his efforts at advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Donohue observed, “His Majesty has been instrumental in moving the Middle East peace talks forward. And Jordan has recently played host to the first direct meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators since 2010. And that’s a hopeful development.”
Given Jordan’s demographics, it is no surprise that Abdullah has taken such a prominent role in trying to pull the peace process forward by hosting three meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Demonstrating leadership on an issue vital and deeply personal to so many in Jordan is a smart political move. Jordan’s own 1994 treaty with Israel made it the second and only other Arab nation, in addition to Egypt, to have such an agreement.
A lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and ultimately the creation of a Palestinian state coupled with a politically empowered Palestinian majority would likely foster greater domestic turbulence for the King and could even weaken the durability of their peace treaty with Israel which any movement away from could endanger its strong ties and support from the United States.
The effort by the King to refocus attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could also been seen as an attempt to steer the spotlight away from the Arab Spring and democratization wave sweeping the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In a Wall Street Journal piece, King Abdullah wrote, “Make no mistake about it: The Palestinian right to statehood and their cry for justice and a homeland free of occupation remain the Arab people’s foremost cause.” Such rhetoric may play well with Jordan’s Palestinians and it does remain an important issue for Arabs; however, those who have been marching and dying in the streets of cities and towns across MENA may disagree that it is the “foremost” cause.
This downplaying of the democratization movement fits well with the so-called counter revolution orchestrated by monarchies across the Middle East hoping to avoid sweeping changes and essentially maintain the status quo domestically. And it is seemingly one of the reasons that the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has invited Jordan (and Morocco) to join the GCC, which is comprised of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. The tactical step can be seen as a move by the monarchies to circle their proverbial wagons and stand united as a counter to the transformative change of the Arab Spring. It also strengthens the alliance which has serious concerns about the threat posed by Iran. And for Jordan it means an much-needed infusion of financial assistance.
In concluding his remarks at the U.S. Chamber, King Abdullah said, “We look at 2012 as being a year of opportunity…We have tremendous hope for 2012.” During this latest trip to Washington, DC, the monarch tried to answer the question "Quo Vadis?" The answer seemed to be: reform, reform, reform. The King spoke to a group of Jordanian expatriates relating that his comprehensive reforms will be “a unique reform model for the whole region that would be a source of pride for all Jordanians.” But whether the reality matches the rhetoric by advancing ground-breaking and not merely cosmetic reforms remains still to be determined. What should become evident in 2012 is whether these promised economic and political reforms will be enough to revive the economy and assuage the demands of Jordan’s protestors. These answers will go a long way to influencing where Jordan is going and what its future looks like.
