Governing through extra-territoriality: Jordan's clothing production zones as tools of imperial power and authoritarian rule

Abstract

Jordan's Export Processing Zones (EPZs) for clothing production form part of political geographies of US imperialism in the Middle East, and have served to bolster Arab-Israeli normalisation and authoritarian governance. A close-up study of these extra-territorial production spaces reveals how ‘free trade’ and associated neoliberal development agendas served to lastingly reconfigure political geographies in Jordan. Preferential US trade policies – granted to Jordan in exchange for signing peace with Israel in 1994 – translated into the creation of extra-territorial production zones (EPZs) and transformed Jordan into an attractive manufacturing location for the footloose global garment industry. Fiscal and regulatory exemptions facilitated the exploitation of labour and land reserves, benefitting a narrow local elite and thus generating new business-state alliances in favour of normalisation agendas. When Transnational Corporations (TNCs) for clothing production replaced most Jordanian-Israeli joint ventures in the EPZs in reaction to the 2001 full Free Trade Agreement with the US, foreign corporate actors began to assume a prominent role in Jordan's state performances. The co-production of positive macro-economic indicators that keep Jordan eligible for loans; as well as the redistribution of extra-territorial privilege to regions where the regime's political legitimacy is contested; expose shared mechanisms of governing through extra-territoriality. Taken together, this close-up empirical exploration of the extra-territorial clothing production regime challenges the façade of economic stability that Jordan's integration into global markets generated. Instead, it foregrounds how US free trade policies widened the rift between official state politics and the lived realities of most Jordanians, producing grievances that can only be managed through authoritarian repression.