Inter-Arab Alliances: Regime Security and Jordanian Foreign Policy (review)

The periodic shifts in alignments among Arab states are among some of the most fascinating and confounding topics for students of Arab politics. In Inter-Arab Alliances, Curtis Ryan critiques and then builds on existing scholarship to make his own solid contribution to our understanding of the workings of the regional state system by focusing on Jordanian foreign policy since 1973.

The first three chapters take on three major issue areas in regional inter-state relations: alliances and alignments, the security dilemma, and the respective roles of ideology and political economy. Ryan’s discussions here are both lucid summaries as well as attempts to push the theoretical discussion forward. Arguing, as a number of other scholars of non-Western regions have, that the security challenges faced by post-colonial or developing countries are qualitatively different (largely in the sense of having more salient and complex domestic components) than those confronted by advanced industrialized states, Ryan focuses on regime security, which he rightly distinguishes from national security. Ryan does not, however, provide a definition of regime security that goes beyond what could be termed internal stability maintenance. He makes a strong case for the centrality of domestic politics throughout this work, but the fact that a regime is more than just the ruler, or that a leader may remain in place while the supporting regime coalition shifts over time, does not figure into this analysis. To address the notion of regime security more effectively, the composition of the underpinning coalition needs to be engaged.

Ryan’s basic argument is that neither the balancing and bandwagoning approaches used by realists and neorealists, nor the political economy (budget security as regime security) approach — and here, in the interest of full disclosure, I am referring to my work¹ — can fully explain Jordanian foreign policy. Rather, an approach that is multi- rather than unicausal is more appropriate. He also rightly notes the ways in which the insights of constructivists can further enhance our understanding of regional politics, although he does not engage their work beyond the theoretical introduction.

The main body of the book consists of eight studies of Jordanian foreign policy/ alignment decisions. In presenting these cases, Ryan’s familiarity with Jordan as a result of numerous periods of fieldwork in the Kingdom is clear. He not only does an admirable job of summarizing what are often complicated relationships and contextual elements, he also makes excellent use of a wealth of interview material taken from his many meetings with Jordanian and other government officials.

In my view, the cases he examines — which he presents chronologically — may be grouped into three categories. The first includes non-war related formal alliances or looser alignments. The second involves decisions regarding participation in war. The third is that of a formal peace treaty. For the first category of cases — the Jordanian-Syrian alliance of the mid-late 1970s, the Jordanian-Iraqi alliance of the 1980s, and the Arab Cooperation Council — the evidence suggests and Ryan admits that economic factors were by far the most important. More interesting and problematic are the cases of war participation (or not): October 1973, the international coalition against Iraq 1990–91, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. How should one characterize Jordan’s minimal participation in 1973, its attempt to remain neutral in 1990–91, and its involvement in 2003 as an unnamed member of the “coalition of the willing?” The author’s contention that economic factors alone cannot account for the policy is convincing. So, too, is his argument that rather than insisting that the cases were instances of either bandwagoning or balancing, we should instead be thinking in terms of other analytical options somewhere in between.

Finally, there is the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty. While the conclusion of this accord was certainly momentous, its inclusion here is problematic, not because the Jordanian-Israeli relationship has...