A Jordanian statesman on Western perceptions, Arab reforms, peace process

Marwan Muasher is a Jordanian statesman, an advocate for closer Jordan-US relations, and a champion of youth. In 1995, he served as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel. From 1997 to 2002, he served as Jordan’s ambassador in Washington, where he helped negotiate the Jordan-US Free Trade Agreement, the first free-trade agreement the US signed with an Arab country. He returned to Jordan in 2002 to serve as Foreign Minister, where he played a key role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Roadmap. He is the current Vice President for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, overseeing research on the Middle East, and the author of “The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation”.  اضافة اعلان

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

H.D. Wright: The past two decades have proven that interaction between the Middle East and the US can be destructive, to put it mildly. The American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are still very near in our rear-view mirror. And the history of colonial exploitation — the division by Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations of greater Syria into the mandates of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan — left scars that still mark these countries in various ways. Should the US just leave the Middle East alone, and allow it to define itself and develop, or are the crises of the modern era so interwoven and multifarious that they essentially prohibit disconnection and mutual isolation?

“I think what we have seen in the US in the last three years… I think that just doesn’t bode well with supporting an occupation, like the US is practically doing when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Marwan Muasher: I argue not that the US should cease interaction, but should change the way it has been interacting in the past. The US has stood by Israel for the longest time, which has earned it a great deal of disrespect from this part of the world, the Arab world, which has not seen American values translate themselves outside America’s borders. And then, of course, the war in Iraq also did additional harm in trying to see the US impose democracy from the outside.

I would argue for a different level of engagement. The reform process in the Arab world, as in any part of the world, should be a homegrown process. The US should not do things to negatively affect that process. If there are ways to help the process, through interaction and understanding of the region’s problems, that is different. I sit on the board of trustees of the American University of Beirut, which is an American institution founded more than a hundred and fifty years ago. That is the kind of interaction that is needed in this region — an institution that has done so much for the Arab world in terms of graduating leaders, in terms of promoting liberal thinking. It has helped advance these values a lot more than what the US has done in Palestine or in Iraq.

HDW: Do you think it is possible to change the nature of that engagement?

MM: I think it is not only possible — it is already happening. You are looking at a new generation of Americans who do not accept the conventional wisdoms that were placed before them. Take the Arab-Israeli conflict as an example. You see a progressive part of the Democratic Party in the US that refuses to blindly support occupation, whether that occupation is in Palestine or elsewhere. I think what we have seen in the US in the last three years — with the Black Lives Matter Movement, with George Floyd, with human rights coming to the forefront of the interests of the new generation — I think that just doesn’t bode well with supporting an occupation, like the US is practically doing when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“The Arab center needs to have a loud voice. It should be a center for moderation not just on the peace process like the West wants it to be, but a center of moderation on reform, on governance.”

The war on Iraq today is hugely unpopular in the US, and the argument put forward by the Bush administration — that it was promoting democracy in the Middle East — proved not to be a sound argument. Today, most Americans on both sides do not support that war. Things are changing. Are they changing quickly enough? Maybe not. Change always takes time. But I think we are living in a world today where people’s rights anywhere across the globe are becoming way more important than they used to be.

HDW: That is one of the things I am most looking forward to seeing, as a young person — how my generation will change the dynamic between the US and the Middle East. Yet we are still held back by old modes of interaction, rooted in old ways of thinking about the relationship. You mentioned Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”, the notion that the Middle East and the West are culturally incompatible, a theory to which 9/11 gave new wings. You were engaging with President Bush at the time as Foreign Minister, and you wrote that you were incredibly worried that the hijackers were Arab. How do you think 9/11 changed the nature of Jordan-US relations?

MM: Stereotypes are often fed by the actions of some radical groups, who are then seen to represent the region from which they come. And that certainly has been the case with 9/11 — a fringe, extremely radical group was seen to represent the whole Arab world. I was the Ambassador of Jordan to the US then, and I made a decision that I would do everything in my power to change that picture. I was very active in the US media explaining that these groups do not represent the vast majority of the Arab world.

Having said that, we in the Arab world also need to do our part in order to change the image we have of a region that is ill-governed. The governance issue has not been an area that we have made significant progress in. Doing that would contribute a great deal to changing the image that some in the West have of us.

HDW: We know who the loudest voices are, as you say, but who is the silent majority? Because if you asked an American to describe the face of the Muslim world, many would unfortunately point to terrorism. What does the silent majority look like? Where do they buy their groceries, send their children to school? They are what is obscured from our gaze.

MM: The silent majority in the Arab world is no different from the silent majority anywhere else in the world. They are middle class people who worry about their children’s education, who worry about improving the lot of their children — people who just have normal interests. It does not change wherever you go in the world as to what the silent majority represents. While it is true that the loudest voices anywhere in the world are usually the radical voices, I wrote a book called “The Arab Center”, and I argued that the Arab center needs to have a loud voice. It should be a center for moderation not just on the peace process like the West wants it to be, but a center of moderation on reform, on governance. In my view, that is the real definition of the Arab center. If we are able to do that, our voices will become much louder.

“Refugees are human beings who have not been accorded safe living in their own country and are under very difficult conditions. No one wants to leave their country on their own. They are forced to.”

HDW: We have discussed terrorism as occupying a space in the American perception of the Arab world — there are also refugee crises, which similarly occupy a coveted space in the supposedly representative cabinet of Islam. As you are well aware, alt-right nationalist politicians characterize them as criminal hordes, which is dangerously reminiscent of orientalist scholarship. My question is quite obvious, but for those who have not met a refugee before, the answer is far from obvious. Are refugees dangerous, and by extension — because this is usually the connection that is made — is Islam dangerous?

MM: Refugees are human beings who have not been accorded safe living in their own country and are under very difficult conditions. No one wants to leave their country on their own. They are forced to. We have had waves of refugees in Jordan, and Jordan has done a superb job in receiving them repeatedly through its existence. We received them first in 1948 — Palestinian refugees — then we received them again in 1967, fleeing the same war between Israel and the Arab States. We received them in 1990 as a result of the first Gulf War. We received them in 2003, with Iraqis coming out of the second Gulf War. And we received them in 2011 because of the Syrian crisis.

Jordan has borne a burden way beyond its resources. The international community needs to recognize that countries as poor as Jordan and Lebanon cannot receive that many refugees without help. You do not want to drive them back, but more needs to be done in order to make sure that these refugees have the proper conditions to live. The UN protocol states that host countries cannot refuse refugees, placing the responsibility on those countries, no matter how rich or poor they are; but it places no responsibility on donor countries to make sure these countries are provided for. The protocol needs to be changed.

“We have seen the world take a pro-Palestinian view out of human rights considerations. We are also seeing that the new generation is concerned about this issue. I am rather optimistic overall, because we are moving toward a very different world, in a way my generation could not.”

HDW: To pivot back to the governmental level, you have argued that the persistence of Israeli occupation of Arab lands contributes to a continued regional disillusionment with the US. How do you think the US can rehabilitate its image in the region? Not just for the purpose of being respected, but to create a foundation upon which collaboration can occur.

MM: I think the US has to pursue a new policy of respecting the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. Today, only the rights of Israelis are respected, and people forget that the Israeli occupation is the longest occupation in modern history. It has been in place since 1967. In today’s world, the issue of human rights can no longer be ignored. No matter where the US starts on this issue, they have to adopt a rights-based approach to solving the conflict. The approach that has been adopted so far has been to try to reach a two-state solution, while ignoring the rights of people under occupation. That cannot continue. We have seen last year, with the war on Gaza and Israeli attempts to evict people from East Jerusalem — we have seen the world take a pro-Palestinian view out of human rights considerations. We are also seeing that the new generation is concerned about this issue. I am rather optimistic overall, because we are moving toward a very different world, in a way my generation could not.


H.D. Wright is Youth Representative at Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations fund for education in emergencies. As the first young person democratically elected to the governing body of a global humanitarian fund, he represents more than 80 youth-led NGOs on the Executive Committee and High-Level Steering Group of the fund chaired by UN Special Envoy for Education Gordon Brown. On International Youth Day, he launched the Youth Democracy Movement.


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