ABSTRACT
Any assessment of Jordan’s foreign policy over the past 70 years has to take into account a number of factors. International relations between the rulers of this kingdom and other state actors in the regional and global context have been shaped by two basic imperatives. The first has been the supremacy of the monarchy in the foreign policy-making process in Jordan. King Hussein, in particular, was personally responsible for the traditional balancing act which Jordan undertook while he was on the throne. Although instinctively pro-Western and anti-radical, yet anxious to avoid isolation within the Arab world, the conduct of international relations in Jordan has borne all the hallmarks of rulers who achieved short-lived periods of equilibrium between these two polar opposites in the balancing act. A saga of constant calculation (often miscalculation), the story of Jordan’s international relations is as much about the ebb and flow in the fortunes of King Hussein and his strong emotional pulls rather than sober economic or strategic calculations in the foreign policy-making process. King Abdullah II also calls all the shots in deciding his country’s foreign policies.
