The quest to end marginalization: Jordan's diversifying alignments in the post-Arab Spring era

Abstract

Since 2017 Jordan has been diversifying its alignments while its relations with its traditional backers have become tenser. Drawing upon the existing literature that explains Jordan's alignment choices, this article aims to understand Jordan's diversification of its alignments and how they evolved in the post-Arab Uprisings era. It is argued that although the regime security argument and the linkage between external and internal threats for explaining Jordan's alignment decisions have been very useful, to take these arguments further, there is a need to unpack regime security. The article, thus, introduces the importance of the content of the threat and from whom it is perceived to understand this complex interaction between external and domestic threat perceptions and how that interaction affects Jordan's alignment choices.