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Jordan SECURITY: A PERENNIAL CONCERN
From the beginning of Hussein's reign in 1953, the king's
position as a pro-Western moderate in the continuing struggle
between Middle East Arab states and Israel has kept him in the
forefront of political uncertainty. He has had to deal with the
preeminent strategic drawback of sharing a longer common border
with Israel than any other Arab country. To compound the unease
generated by this 345-kilometer frontier, repeated Arab-Israeli
wars demonstrated that Israeli forces always fielded vastly
superior military capability. As a consequence, the king for many
years has avoided engaging Israel in battle and has prevented
provocations launched from Jordanian territory by PLO militants
that could spark Israeli retaliation. Domestically, the danger
posed to Hussein's rule by armed Palestinian groups during the
1960s had by the late 1980s given way to new sources of potential
instability--the increasing militancy of the Islamic revival
movement and the frustration of lowered economic expectations,
together with civilian impatience over the limits on political
expression. For the immediate future, however, the security forces
seemed sufficiently well equipped to suppress agitation and
organized attempts to subvert the monarchy.
Data as of December 1989
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