Jordan, Eighty Years After Independence

It is no coincidence that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which celebrates on this twenty-fifth of May the eightieth anniversary of its independence, has become one of the cornerstones of Arab security, or of what remains of it.

All the theories that had underestimated Jordan have ended up in the dustbin of history, for it has become clear that this country has never lost its regional role. Jordan has held firm despite all the internal tremors and storms it has weathered, and despite the profound upheavals the region has undergone.

In 1921, the very year in which the Emirate of Transjordan was proclaimed, a conference was convened in Cairo bringing together the foremost figures of British policy under the chairmanship of Winston Churchill. Lawrence of Arabia was among those present, as were most of the British experts on Arab and Iraqi affairs and regional matters generally, Palestine above all. Foremost among these was Lady Gertrude Bell, then regarded as the most influential British figure in Iraq and the one who wielded the greatest sway over that country. It was Bell who drew the current map of Iraq and played a decisive role in bringing the Hashemites to Baghdad and crowning Faysal ibn Hussein as king.

With the passage of years, it became apparent that the Cairo Conference, which had aimed to divide the region into spheres of influence between Britain and France, had proven, in terms of its results, a resounding failure on every level. Among the most striking manifestations of this failure were the bloody military coup that toppled the Iraqi monarchy in 1958 and, before that, the Suez War of 1956, which consecrated the decline of imperial Britain, the empire on which “the sun never set”…

One of the notable features of the Cairo Conference was the underestimation of Prince Abdallah ibn Hussein, who was placed at the head of the Emirate of Transjordan and later became king in 1946, upon the proclamation of the independence of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Considering what befell Palestine and Iraq, Jordan may well be regarded as the sole true success story of the Cairo Conference, and that success story has held to this day, all the more so since the solidity of Jordanian institutions has proven itself beyond doubt, notably since 1952, when Hussein ibn Talal ascended the throne at the age of barely seventeen.

The Cairo Conference of 1921, which best illustrates the failure of British policy in the region, is not the only event worth pausing over. The modern history of Jordan abounds in developments that merit attention, among them the decisive role played by Queen Zein el-Sharaf, mother of King Hussein, in imposing her son as sovereign despite his young age. King Hussein ibn Talal proved to be a singular phenomenon in the country’s history, succeeding a father afflicted with a mental illness that rendered him unfit to remain on the throne.

Under Hussein ibn Talal’s reign, Jordan acquired, thanks to its institutions, a determining role at every level, despite all the upheavals and conspiracies that targeted it, from the rise of the Nasserist wave (after Gamal Abdel Nasser), which gave rise to a series of catastrophes including the military coup against the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, the Egyptian-Syrian union of February of that same year, and the Arab defeat of 1967, whose consequences continue to weigh on the region to this day.

Jordan confronted all these events and storms with remarkable composure, beginning with its resistance to the alternative homeland project in 1970, when the Jordanian army faced the attempts of various Palestinian organizations to seize the kingdom, thereby protecting the Palestinians from themselves. This resistance was made possible by the cohesion between East Jordanians and the throne, a cohesion that has evolved in our time into a solidarity encompassing all the components of Jordanian society. The Palestinians, instructed by their own experiences, have become the most steadfast supporters of the Hashemite throne and King Abdallah II, who has never ceased, over many long years, to champion the two-state option, the only realistic choice for a settlement between Palestinians and Israelis, in the long run, that is, when the Israeli right abandons its illusions and when a Palestinian leadership worthy of the name rises to the level of events.

In 2026, no one any longer underestimates Jordan, especially in light of the spirit of continuity that defines a kingdom which has known how to preserve itself at all times, in the face of Iraqi, Syrian, and Israeli turbulences.

Jordan preserved itself by signing the Wadi Araba Accords with Israel in 1994, a step intimately linked to seizing the opportunity that had been opened by Yasser Arafat’s engagement with the Oslo Accords in the autumn of 1993.

Continuity, illustrated notably by the caution Jordan has always exercised in its dealings with the “Islamic Republic” of Iran since its foundation, stands among this country’s most distinctive traits, a continuity that was confirmed by the serene transfer of power to King Abdallah II upon the death of Hussein ibn Talal in 1999.

Whoever wagered on the fragility of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan wagered on a mirage, especially since Abdallah II has demonstrated his ability to play a leading role in Jordan and beyond its borders, including in the United States. The kingdom is today a state that plays a vital role in regional stability, despite all the conspiracies that have sought to undermine that role, and Jordan has become a haven for Syrian refugees and those from other countries, having long before that opened its arms to Palestinian refugees from every corner!

Events attest daily to the manner in which Abdallah II has established himself as an indispensable actor in the region, while broadening domestic consensus around the monarchical institution.

It has become clear that all talk of a decline in Jordan’s regional role verges on the absurd. The more time passes, the more apparent becomes the necessity of the Jordanian role in the face of all forms of extremism, whether that of the Muslim Brotherhood or that of the Iranian regime and its various instruments. More important than all of this, events demonstrate daily just how inseparable Gulf security is from the security of Jordan, and the security of Jordan, from that of the Gulf…