ABSTRACT
From the perspective of London, policy towards the Transjordan Mandate stressed economy of effort combined with the incremental development of structures needed for a functioning state. Naturally, the theme of steady development under a benign guiding hand dominated official British publicity regarding Transjordan. Great influence was vested in figures such as Sir Alec Kirkbride, who as a military and later political adviser to Abdullah was associated with Jordan for most of his career, and John Bagot Glubb, who exercised a formative influence on the Desert Police Force and the embryonic Arab Legion. However, in the years after World War Two the relationship between Britain and Jordan became increasingly interwoven with the growth of Arab nationalism in the wider Middle East. By the time Transjordan attained full independence in 1946, London could take credit for a successful state-building exercise given the tenuous foundations on which the new Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was built. However, Britain’s relationship with Jordan was significantly altered by the creation of Israel in 1948. Although Abdullah’s constitutional monarchy was able to enlarge its territory through the acquisition of the West Bank, an influx of Palestinian refugees transformed the nature of the Jordanian polity.
