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Regime Security in Jordan revisited: the new challenges to the monarchy’s resilience after the Arab Spring
Abstract
Since the breakout of the Arab Spring, most of the relevant states in the region have been engaged in a vicious circle of violence caused by various actors in both state and private conflicts and the hegemons once considered as the vanguard of Arab nationalism saw a sharp decline of their resources of power, while Jordan, a typical example of “weak-state security dilemma” in the argument of Regime Security secured successfully its legitimacy. This research, which is based on literature review and field research explores what the meanings of regime security in Jordan and the strength of its state institutions are, in the face of an unprecedented security insurgency in the Middle East today. Against this background, in the first section, the research sketches the condition of regime survival in the Middle East and Jordan since the Arab Spring. In the following sections, the old and new relations and power distribution among the Jordanian political and security apparatuses, before and after 2011, will be examined. In terms of its military security capability, the case of Jordan reveals some simple facts that demonstrate what is essential to maintaining armed forces stability despite regional turbulence. In its seven decades-long and often debilitating struggle against both internal and external challenges, Jordan has nearly conquered its state-to-nation imbalance, as demonstrated by the efforts by the Hashemite leaders’ efforts to build functional and loyal armed forces and to enhance international support. However, ironically, the comparatively stable and military-empowered Jordan had to face the terrorism threat directly and insurgency coming from war-torn Syria and Iraq. On the other hand, dialogue with the wave of political liberalization in Jordan after 2011 was a more sensitive issue for the monarchy than deterring external threats, while the democratization movement saw, by the end of 2011, a sudden decrease in its size and the number of participant actors. Any political reforms in Jordan including democratization are still considered as the monarchy’s top-down output in the context of regime security. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that the government has to continue tackling the democratization dilemma with fewer options of both political resources and material incentives so far, to co-opt the oppositions and the citizens who are less ideological motived but simply demand political transparency and individual liberty.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Jordan
Sub Area
Security Studies