Evaluating the Jordanian National Security Strategy Toward the Palestinian_Jordanians (Palestinian_Jordanians as a Securitization Case-Study)

Authors

Mohannad K. Al-Kasaji, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

International Relations

First Advisor's Name

Mohiaddin Mesbahi

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Thomas A. Breslin

Third Advisor's Name

Russell E. Lucas

Fourth Advisor's Name

Maria del Mar Logrono

Keywords

International Relations, Security Studies, Middle East Politics, Jordanian Politics

Date of Defense

3-2-2012

Abstract

In its approach to the Palestinian-Jordanians’ issue, this dissertation employs a security-based theory and technique, which deal with the issue as a securitization case-study. It employs a modified version of the securitization theory offered by the Copenhagen School to evaluate the classical Jordanian national security strategy toward Palestinian-Jordanians. It addresses, reviews, weighs and evaluates the four strategies and tools of the Jordanian securitization model toward Palestinian-Jordanians: exclusionism, tribalism, cooptation and ideologization, which present the independent variables of this study. This evaluation process is based on a multi-standard strategy, which discusses the goals, the evidence, the outputs and the structure of the Jordanian securitization model since Black September 1970. In terms of methodology, the dissertation adopted a multi-method strategy, which used field research, participant observation and elite interviewing as primary methods for data acquisition.

In its security-based re-reading of the modern Jordanian history and its evaluation of the Jordanian national security strategy, the dissertation concludes that the Jordanian securitization model has led to a number of dangerous adverse reactions and hazards, which threaten Jordanian national security. The awakening of the extreme versions of nationalism, the rise of social/tribal violence and the emergence of the radical Islamist Salafi-Jihadi movement are examples of the hazardous outputs of the classical Jordanian national security strategy. Although the classical strategy has succeeded in maintaining the physical survival of the state/regime in Jordan since 1921, it has failed to cure the structural crises of statehood and nationhood, which the Jordanian state suffers from. Also, the classical strategy has failed to decisively answer the strategic questions of "what is Jordan?" and "who are Jordanians?". This strategic failure of the classical Jordanian national security strategy toward Palestinian-Jordanians rings alarm bells about the strategic and urgent need for an alternative national security strategy based on egalitarianism, modernism, populism and democratization.

Identifier

FI12041103

Recommended Citation

Al-Kasaji, Mohannad K., "Evaluating the Jordanian National Security Strategy Toward the Palestinian_Jordanians (Palestinian_Jordanians as a Securitization Case-Study)" (2012). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 554.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/554