Ezra Karmel is a Technical Director at Proximity International. He works at the intersection of research and development programming, primarily focused on governance and security in the Middle East. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Guelph and is an associate at the Governance and Local Development Institute.
The latest in Democracy in Exile's book series comes from DAWN Fellow Sean Yom. In his latest book, titled "Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible," Yom provides a comprehensive and systematic breakdown of all things Jordan. The book can be purchased via the publisher, Oxford University Press.
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Sean Yom begins "Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible" with a frequently recounted story about how the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's jagged eastern border took shape when Winston Churchill slipped as he penned a new map for the region. All this, Yom notes, occurred while Winnie was "sipping brandy under the Egyptian sun." So unconcerned was the colonial secretary that he did not bother to correct his mistake, and the eastern handle of the would-be kingdom came to be known by an affectionate moniker: "Winston's hiccup."
While this story of haphazard origins is easily dismissed as fiction, other myths about Jordanian history and politics have proven more persistent. Despite a rich—albeit small—academic literature on Jordan, discussions of the less affectionally monikered "Kingdom of Boredom" tend to be guided by a set of over-simplified narratives. They describe Jordan as a forever-on-the-brink country trapped between Iraq and a hard place. From this perspective, the country's importance is derived from its geostrategic location and is guided by progressive royal leadership whose reform efforts are stymied by entrenched tribal dinosaurs.
So established are these "distorting tropes of global media coverage" that self-proclaimed Middle East experts feel comfortable relegating Jordan to the backburner, only to rehash the well-scripted narratives when the kingdom makes an infrequent appearance in the news cycle.
Not in some time has a book on Jordan attempted the same breadth of scope as Yom's "Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible."
- Ezra Karmel
The consequences of relying on these myths extend beyond the reproduction of lazy analysis. They also, as Yom argues, produce political repercussions: Western fears of Jordanian collapse serve to perpetuate autocratic rule, just as framing the kingdom through its importance for Western strategic interests transforms it into a strategic object—nothing more. Given this problematic treatment of the "oft-misunderstood Arab country," Yom begins his book by "dispelling the contrived misunderstandings that swirl around it." Having interrogated these myths directly, he devotes the monograph's remaining pages to replacing this "conventional wisdom" with solid stepping stones for understanding the country's complex social, political and economic landscapes.
Not in some time has a book on Jordan attempted the same breadth of scope as Yom's
"Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible." Previous books of this scope primarily constitute works of history, tracing a linear story from the Hashemite entry into the would-be kingdom and up to the modern state. Yom approaches the task differently. He employs thematically organized chapters that begin with the basics, adding layers of progressive nuance as the reader advances through the pages. This structure allows Yom to introduce Jordan's political institutions, social fabric and economic pressures while keeping the focus firmly on the current period. He still provides historical detail but does so without making the reader slog through the past to get to the present.
Through his thematic approach, Yom introduces the main threads of the scholarship, weaving together the main literatures on Jordan, including authoritarian upgrading, monarchical resilience, clientelism, rentierism, contentious politics, Islamism, civil society and foreign policy. Drawing on these bodies of work, he outlines numerous interesting paradoxes: The country is outwardly stable yet internally brittle; it hosts a relatively open and outspoken society but is governed by an authoritarian state; democratic rituals persist but reliably yield autocratic outcomes; the country lacks natural resources but occupies disproportionate geopolitical importance; and, while most citizens are of Palestinian origin, political power remains concentrated among East Bankers.
In contrast with the myths that flatten Jordan, these paradoxes reveal its complexity. It is this complexity that gives the unlikely kingdom its crucible-like quality.
The book represents an ideal first port of call for diplomats or development practitioners heading to Amman. In the same vein, it would be a wonderful resource for journalists, policymakers and students looking to familiarize themselves with the country. Yom's work will prove particularly helpful to readers who have at least a passing familiarity with Middle East politics, helping them to better understand how events elsewhere in the region are interconnected with developments in Jordan—particularly when the book dips back a bit further in history.
Diplomatic readers seeking an informed answer about Jordan's future stability will find Yom's book an invaluable resource, reminding them that even if Jordan's stability endures, the country is not simple—and it is not in stasis.
- Ezra Karmel
The bibliography of "Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible" constitutes an up-to-date omnibus of the political science literature on Jordan, but Yom drops only a handful of names directly within his narrative. For those who are new to this literature, these references form a concise guide to its essential reading. For those who are acquainted with these works, he covers some familiar ground.
Standing on the shoulders of these key contributions, Yom brings them into the present. He connects old threads to new events, such as the attempted coup in 2021 or the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2025. For the newly arrived practitioner, therefore, Yom offers a historical and theoretical foundation for the topics that dominate ongoing conversations among the international community. This is a particularly valuable service given that several watershed events have occurred since many of the seminal works on the country were written.
In addition to synthesizing the growing contributions to the study of Jordan over the past few decades, Yom includes useful frameworks for structuring an understanding of the country. Of note are his emphasis on coercion and coalitions as tandem pillars of stability and his articulation of the fluidity of the political opposition.
Throughout the book, he also scatters nuggets from his previous empirical studies, including rich details about the 2011 hirak protests and striking figures on the country's coercive apparatus from his more recent work. Thus, for anyone with a solid background on Jordan, the book provides not only a comforting parsimony that brings together myriad paradigms and paradoxes but also includes several novel discussions.
Diplomatic readers seeking an informed answer about Jordan's future stability will find Yom's book an invaluable resource, reminding them that even if Jordan's stability endures, the country is not simple—and it is not in stasis. Readers pondering reform programming will find sober reflections on the self-reinforcing structures influencing Jordan's future, the foundations of which date back to Churchill's clumsy penmanship.
The views and positions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DAWN.
