Jordan has few resources. It is one of the world’s leading exporters of phosphate, but prices for this commodity fluctuate frequently and in the past ten years they have dropped considerably. Recently, the Hashemite Kingdom has discovered substantial quantities of high-quality shale-oil in many areas south and east of the capital Amman. Their exploitation could…

The latest ‘Peace’ plan, the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ by US President Donald Trump has added more pressure on King Abdullah. Jordan plays a crucial role in President Trump’s ‘project’, which at its essence implies the retirement of the two-state solution (Israel and a Palestinian State, entirely independent, comprising of the entire West Bank,…

Jordan is a country marked by ‘artificial’ borders, drawn on a map in the wake of World War I and the new world order that emerged from it. These borders extend from the fertile lands of the Jordan River and the shores of the Dead Sea, to the desert of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.…

Inevitably, the Jordanian government – and the political arrangement, which has taken decades to craft in order to achieve the present equilibrium among the Jordanian tribes, the Palestinians and the religious authorities – will lose legitimacy. The Jordanian monarch, pressed with the difficult decision of having to compromise the interests of the various political actors,…