ABSTRACT
The development performance of Jordan has been particularly successful in cross-country comparison. Economic growth rates in the past have been exceptional, as compared with both the Arab and the international situation. The country plays a skilful role in the political and strategic balance of power in the Middle East: it maintains excellent relations with the West, particularly with the US, yet rejects the Camp David Agreement. It relies both on the US and the USSR for substantial supplies of military equipment. It takes a differentiated but workable position towards the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after having suppressed the organization's military commandos in 1971 and it is a member of a political axis ranging from Iraq to Saudi Arabia, replacing the former close political and economic relations between Jordan and Syria. The international political and strategic dimension is one crucial aspect of a complex polygon of forces in which Jordan's development planners are operating.
