Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril (review)

King Abdullah's book, Our Last Best Chance, is an autobiography viewing the author's early life, rise to the Jordanian throne, and the issues that he was compelled to address after becoming king. To some extent, its straightforward, readable style, and frequent anecdotes make it reminiscent of his father King Husayn's 1962 book, Uneasy Lies the Head. There is, however, a key difference. King Husayn, who acceded to the throne at age 17, always knew he was likely to lead his country. By contrast, King Abdullah II became king at 38 following a successful military career and was widely considered a long shot to head the monarchy until the last weeks before he assumed office. Despite this difference, King Abdullah is equally skilled as his father in discussing his life within the context of major Jordanian political events and trends while occasionally drawing on his extensive knowledge of security matters to discuss Jordanian domestic and international challenges.

The text begins with King Abdullah's childhood and adolescence, including his time at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He then moves on to discuss his initial military education at Sandhurst which was followed by a brief tour as a junior officer with the British Army before returning to Jordan. Unsurprisingly, the author devotes considerable attention to his service with the Jordanian Army where he spent 19 years and rose to the rank of Major General. One might assume that a young Arab prince would have a fairly easy ride in the military, with senior officers falling over themselves to curry favor with his father by treating him in an avuncular way. Nevertheless, this is not how King Abdullah portrays his military years. Rather, he suggests that he had recurring problems with insecure senior officers who "felt threatened by my joining the military, figuring in time I might encroach on their established ways, and even on their positions" (p. 50). He stated that such individuals gave him postings designed to isolate him and convince him to leave the army for an easier life as a civilian. King Abdullah maintains that he never sought or received his father's help in addressing these difficulties, but such problems tended to fade over time as the future king began to prove himself. The author takes a great deal of pride in his military service and especially his command of the elite Special Operations Command. He has a special bond with these troops which he led in a variety of circumstances, including against well-armed drug smugglers seeking to transit Jordan to access lucrative markets elsewhere in the region.

Once Abdullah became king, he inherited the numerous problems associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the need to manage foreign relations with a variety of countries, including those with the United States. A significant portion of the work discusses Jordanian views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many of his statements will not be well-received by supporters of Israeli territorial claims beyond the 1967 borders. The King refers to what he calls the "cancer of Israeli settlements spreading across the Occupied Territories" (p. 301) and is strongly supportive of a settlement freeze. The work is also critical of many hardline Israeli leaders, including Binyamin Netanyahu, while praising moderates such as Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated before Abdullah came to power. King Abdullah also continues to support the 2002 Arab League Peace Plan, which offers Israel normalized relations with Arab and Muslim states in exchange for the return of all territory captured in the June 1967 War. He repeatedly calls this plan the "57 state solution" since it offers Israel normalized relations with that number of Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for full territorial withdrawal.

King Abdullah also discusses Jordan's relations with US political and military leaders. The first American president he dealt with as king was Bill Clinton, whom he characterizes as continuously seeking ways...