A Nation-Building Analysis of Jordan’s Response to Pandemic with the Perspective of Political Integration

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the approach of political integration behind the decision-making made by the Jordanian government in response to the threat of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although Jordan is a developing MENA country that has relatively controlled the spread of the epidemic, especially in the first half of 2020, through 2020, to fight COVID-19, the Jordanian government was generally reluctant to give up nation-building that could contribute to political integration. Those specific policies to fight the pandemic are not only for ‘knee-hopping’ to responding to short-term suppression of public health security threats, but to smoothly maintain the existing political system, conveying comprehensive political culture, coping with external expectations, and balancing domestic forces in particular between ethnic groups, so as to achieve political integration required by a solid nation state.