Jordan combats the Islamic State by addressing domestic grievances

In an article written for the European Council on Foreign Relations Saleem Haddad discusses how Jordan is responding domestically to the Islamic State. 

Since the Islamic State (IS) spectacularly took over Mosul in early June and soon after declared an Islamic Caliphate on Syrian and Iraqi land, many Jordanians have been worried that they will be next.

This fear is not unfounded. Jordan has long been an exporter of jihadi fighters – IS itself evolved out of a group founded by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Footage of IS fighters tearing apart and then burning their Jordanian passports as well as threatening to slaughter King Abdullah II only confirms that Jordan, and its leader, are in their sights. An estimated 2,000 Jordanians are currently fighting in Syria, and many of them are doing so under the banner of IS. In response, the government pushed through a controversial anti-terror bill earlier this year, which broadens the definition of terrorism to include “joining or attempting to join”, the “direct and indirect funding” of, and “attempting to recruit” for “any armed group or terrorist organisation in the Kingdom and abroad.” This makes it impossible for Jordanian fighters to return to the country without facing prosecution.

In June, in response to IS advancing to within a few kilometres of Jordan’s 180 kilometre-long border with Iraq, the government deployed about a hundred Special Forces and Air Force personnel to the Iraqi side of the border. While in theory IS might attempt to seize border crossings as it tried to do in Lebanon, the group is highly unlikely to be successful given that Jordan’s borders are protected with state of the art technology, including about 40,000 Jordanian army personnel and 1,000 US troops brought in to fend off threats from the war in Syria. Since late April, Jordanian authorities have also implemented a new security campaign along its borders, no longer allowing unidentified persons to cross through. Given the length of its borders with Syria and Iraq, however, it will be impossible to seal them off entirely.

Read the full article on the European Council on Foreign Relations website.

Saleem Haddad is the Conflict and Security Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at Saferworld.

As part of our 'Capacities for Peace' project, Saferworld and Conciliation Resources held a three day conflict analysis workshop in Amman, Jordan in June 2014. Read the summary which presents an overview of the discussions that took place, as well some of the key recommendations and solutions that participants developed.

“The Jordanian government should work towards sustainable peace and security by addressing long-term problems of inequality, poverty, and development in the country.”

Saleem Haddad