Jordan’s New Opposition and its "Old" Authoritarian Tactics

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan epitomizes one of the remarkable cases for regime stability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The 2011 Arab Uprisings that swept through most of the countries in the Arab Middle East did not foreseeably engulf the Kingdom of Jordan. At the height of Arab protests, Jordan employed a decades-old strategy of regime-survival to cope with increased opposition in the country. Having said that, the June protests in 2018 and the subsequent increased socio-economic problems unlocked an ascendant phenomenon of Jordanian politics. In light of this, this article aims to analyze what is “new” in Jordanian politics since the 2011 Uprisings, and as the corollary of this objective, it will address the mobilization of East Bank tribes as the new source of opposition. This article will also scrutinise the shortcomings of authoritarian persistence paradigm in the case of Kingdom of Jordan.