ABSTRACT
Top-level leadership According to Al-Khazendar (1997: 25), ‘The paramount role of the King in the formulation of policy means that the role of the Cabinet is essentially executive’, a fact confirmed by the constitutional rights granted to the monarch. Therefore, in discussing elite leadership, attention will mainly fall on the person of the monarch who shapes external policies and oversees domestic implementation of ordered reform and progress. However, this is not to say that the elite leadership is reduced to the person of the monarch. The influence of the ‘first circle’ elite, as Bank and Schlumberger (Perthes 2004) call those advisers, consultants and opinion leaders close to the King, is indeed acknowledged but will not be dealt with separately; rather the final policy tendencies will, understanding that they were shaped by various consultations with members of the political elite. As such, the vision and type of peace envisaged by King Hussein and by King Abdullah II after him are key to this role. These visions become the benchmark against which the degree of implementation is measured.
