Introduction

A number of formulations about civil-military relations in the state have been in existence for a very long time. The need to guard and permanently patrol 400 miles of frontier presents peculiar problems for the Jordanian military which, in turn, affect the argument regarding a professional, long-enlistment army versus a national conscription one. The chapter focuses on relevant data relies primarily upon the 1961 Census and the "Directory of Jordan" issued by the Department of General Statistics in 1964, No. 2. For other—and different—sources of information relevant to the Legion one must look to the memoirs and personal accounts of those who were involved in Jordan in one official capacity or another. In the territory which came to be known after the First World War as Transjordan political inexperience was coupled to a tribal society which comprised both settled and nomadic beduin tribes.