Supplying democracy? : U.S. security assistance to Jordan, 1989-2002

Abstract

Democracy promotion has been a principal foreign policy goal of the United States in the post-Cold War world. Democratic expansion is seen as an essential element of enhanced security and stability throughout the world. Jordan, having begun its own democratization program in 1989, has been a major recipient of U.S. security assistance since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. This thesis explores the question of whether U.S. security assistance has helped or hindered democratization in Jordan. It accomplishes this through an examination of the military aid received and the specific nature of civil-military relations in Jordan, particularly during the democratization program and its subsequent rollback. This thesis concludes that, counter to declared U.S. policy, U.S. security assistance to Jordan has effectively helped to limit democratization in Jordan through the empowerment of anti-democratic elements in Jordan. The findings present challenges to further democratization in Jordan that will be difficult to surmount. A conditional foreign aid program would encourage further political reform in Jordan that could serve as a model for other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.