Country Profile: Jordan
— -- Located in the belly of the Middle East geopolitical cauldron, Jordan has historically displayed the sort of pragmatism it takes for a small nation to survive in a region of big problems.
Squashed by Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, the Hashmite Kingdom of Jordan gained independence from the British in 1946 and has since been ruled by three generations of monarchs.
King Hussein, the longest ruling Jordanian monarch, who controlled the small kingdom from 1953 until his death in 1999, was considered a master of navigating the often conflicting post-colonial, Cold War pressures of Arab, Israeli, British, U.S. and Soviet interests.
Today, his eldest son, King Abdullah II, faces the daunting task of maintaining stability in a country where the politically empowered but minority Jordanian families — known as East Bank Jordanians — rule over the majority of Palestinians and descendants of Palestinian refugees from Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
Balancing Arab and U.S. Interests
With inadequate resources of oil and water, Jordan has been battling economic impoverishment, social instability and an ever-present crisis across its western borders that periodically threatens to severely undermine its national equilibrium.
Although Jordan, along with Egypt, has signed peace treaties with Israel, the ruling powers face a restive population on the streets especially since the current intifada erupted last September claiming hundreds of lives, mostly Palestinians.
Abdullah has roundly condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Jordan is expected to be at pains to distinguish the airborne suicide attacks on the United States from Arab discontent over Israel's response to the current uprising, especially the recent assassinations of Palestinian leaders by the Israeli military.
On its part, the United States is eager to win broad Arab support for its attempts to build a coalition to fight international terrorism.
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