The End of the Beginning

With only one week left in Amman, the groups began the process of compiling their thoughts and notes into a form that is more conducive to creating clear and concise policy recommendations. In order to achieve this end, each group had lengthy and at times heated discussions that ran through the course of the day. Despite this fact, there is still research to be done, and each of the groups intends to meet with one or more contacts prior to the conclusion of our time in Amman.

For example, today the Political Reform group met with Asma Khader of the Hashemite Fund for Human Development. During this meeting, the group shed further light on several issues. Foremost among these was a better understanding of women's continuing participation in civil society and electoral politics. Mrs. Khader disscussed how the US faced problems and sensitivity when promoting certain women's issues. Along these lines, she acknowledged that it is important to "respect every human's right to believe, but not to be controlled by believers." While stressing the problem of religious extremism in the Middle East, Mrs. Khader also brought up the subject of religion in the West and challenged some of our ideas regarding religion and freedom in American society.

Our initial drafts of the policy memos are due tomorrow night and we look forward to a busy day of synthesizing information and putting it into a manageable form tomorrow.
While the first part of our project is coming to a close, we are only just beginning to get into the substance of the project and we are excited to see where the next phase in our studies will take us.

Alex B + Chas

The group just returned from a weekend of fun in the ancient city of Petra and the scenic Wadi Rum nature preserve.

We began our weekend excursion at 5 AM on Friday morning. After a bit of trouble finding a taxi that early in the morning, we arrived at the bus station and rolled down the King's Highway to Petra.

In the town itself, we checked into the Petra Moon hotel and made our way to the gates of the ancient city. Walking down the Siq, the canyon-lined road down into the center of the city, we saw many tourists and a few façades embossed into the stone. It was difficult to imagine the grandeur of the city of rock-hewn buildings before erosion, but it was obvious that Petra was once a most magnificent city.

After viewing camels, the Treasury, and the amphitheater, we hiked up an adjacent mountain and found what turned out to be an island of calm - the monastery. The enormous structure stood isolated with few tourists, and it looked out over a spectacular view that showed us Israel and the Jordan River Valley.

We scrambled down the mountain and took a hair-raising bus ride up a mountain to view the sunset, and then proceeded to meet with the family of Abdullah, a former exchange student at West Point. His family was gracious and served us a huge meal of traditional chicken mensaf, which consists of chicken over rice and yogurt stew, with mint, toasted peanuts and pine nuts. The group devoured the meal, which was eaten in the traditional bedouin way: on the floor, with our hands. The mensaf was overwhelmingly good, and the groups divided for the post-meal discussion by gender.

The following day, the group woke for a day of desert tourism in Wadi Rum, a windswept landscape of multicolored sand, giant sculpted rock mountains, and ancient cave carvings.

We rented 4X4s and drove across the desert, climbed sand dunes, scrambled up mountains, and watched the sunset. We took lunch under a slightly-less-hot black goat's wool bedouin tent, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. We even caught a glimpse of King Abdullah's helicopters landing across the valley at his retreat.

We finished the weekend with a Sunday meeting at Al-Hussein bin Tallal University in Ma'an. We had a chance to sit in on an International Relations lecture and see the engineering department, the library, and various other buildings at this beautiful desert campus.

On our way back to Amman, we stopped once more at Abdullah's home, where we all received gifts of prayer beads, and the girls each received a hijab that was selected to match their outfits.

Inside Islamism

Today, the political reform group met with Dr. Abdul Latif Arabiyat, former secretary general for the Islamic Action Front. The IAF is the political wing of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, and it was interesting to hear the perspective from someone inside the movement upon which many of our other discussions have turned.

We met with Dr. Arabiyat in the formal and quite luxurious portion of his home near the University of Jordan. He began by listing the achievements of the Islamic movement in Jordan: pluralism and recognition of other parties, democratic internal structure, support for the political role of women, a universal citizenship model, and participation in Jordan's existing system.

Dr. Arabiyat seemed to prefer speaking in general terms about the effect of civil liberty restrictions on the Islamic movement and role of the movement in relation to the state rather than answer our direct questions about the impacts economics, the government of Jordan and US foreign policy have on the movement. Recent laws restricting civil liberties in Jordan have severely hampered the social work executed by the Muslim Brotherhood. For example, donors now have to register their contributions to the Brotherhood with the government, and the Public Gatherings law often limits events that the Brotherhood would like to hold. Dr. Arabiyat did make the interesting notation that the law itself only requires people to submit their event information before holding it; the granting of permission is not an explicit mandate of the law. Nevertheless, the authorities disperse certain events often by force and at the limit.

One of Dr. Arabiyat's main points was that a strong showing of Islamists in Parliament would "build confidence between people and the state". The Brotherhood has the social capital to continue to increase its support in Jordan because of the large amount of social work that they do. Not surprisingly, Dr. Arabiyat argued that these social programs strengthen the IAF's position among the people.

Working towards a relationship between citizens and the state that is based on rights and duties rather that favors and opportunities was reiterated in this meeting. Yet to the extent that the political IAF and socially minded projects of the Muslim Brotherhood, I worry that some Jordanians might simply begin to see the Islamic movement itself as a patron. If that is the case, the Islamic movement will truly have become a "parallel system" complete with its own bureaucracy, security and technicalities. In such a vision, the movement does not contribute to the flowering of truly ideological partisan politics in Jordan, but simply an alternative way to access power and resources.

-Margaret

Weddings and Health Care

Today, the refugees group met with Dr. Hashim Elzein, the World Health Organization Representative and Head of Mission for Jordan. We wanted to meet with him for two reasons; first, to better understand Jordan's health care system in general, and second to ask questions about the services the WHO is providing that apply to Iraqis living in Jordan. We went into the interview expecting to hear the party line based on our previous interview with UNHCR, which had essentially been a reaffirmation of what government officials already told us. We were pleasantly surprised, however. First of all, Dr. Elzein answered practically all our questions in his exceptionally informative briefing; this led to new and better informed questions that we were able to ask at the end. Second, he was fairly candid in his assessment of Jordan's health care system, a refreshing change from the government line that we had heard up to today.

The health care issue can be boiled down fairly simply. There are four categories of health care in Jordan -- private health insurance, government / public health insurance, non-insured Jordanians, and foreigners. The Jordanian government has agreed that Iraqis can be treated as non-insured Jordanians. This is only nominally better than foreigners are treated however, as both non-insured Jordanians and foreigners still have to pay 120% of all costs of drugs. While Dr. Elzein said he would "leave it to us" to determine whether or not Iraqis are actually able to access health care in the same way non-Jordanians are (and stories we have heard indicate that there is a lot of discrimination against Iraqis in the health care system), he also noted that there are multiple problems of access within the existing system. Both non-insured Jordanians and Iraqis do not have access to an acceptable level of health care.

Thus, in the arena of health care, the group is beginning to realize that the entire system needs an overhaul, not just the way Iraqis are able to access that system. The same is true for education; multiple people have told us that the problem with education is not that Iraqis are or are not allowed in schools. The problem is that the educational system is overcrowded and irrelevant, regardless of whether or not Iraqi children attend Jordanian public schools. Yet, even if the government were to begin an overhaul of the entire system, the trick, of course, would be finding a short-term solution until the system can be corrected.

Later this evening, we met with an Iraqi woman whose husband used to work as a translator for the US military. After several threats on his life and the lives of his family members, the family moved to Jordan. We learned that they were not given refugee status at UNHCR and have not even attempted to go to the US Embassy and request resettlement in the US, because they have no official documentation to prove that her husband was in fact a translator. The family lives off the income of one daughter, who as a university student has legal residency and thus is allowed to work. Yesterday, we met with another single-mother family and heard her story. These stories are hard to hear, but entirely necessary to our project. They are the equalizers to the good news the government spins, or the funding-driven information we are given by some NGOs. Of course, everything must be taken with a grain of salt, but this additional perspective is extremely valuable. We are constantly blown away by the hospitality of the Iraqis we meet; we cannot visit a single house without drinking juice, cola, or a cup of tea. Even as Americans, we have always been welcomed warmly and graciously, and the Iraqis are more than willing to tell their stories and let us ask them questions. One went so far as to say that the reason she was happy to speak with us was because she knew we were students trying to understand the situation, and she wanted to help us. Accepting the welcome and openness of these people has been a lesson in humility for me. Were the situation reversed, I wonder if I could be a generous with them as they have been with us.

As we left the apartment of the last woman we spoke to, a wedding was getting underway in the next street. Our Iraqi host became very excited and brought us over to take photos and chat. Of course, we were offered coffee and the next thing I knew, Piyali and I were being escorted up the stairs, into the women's section of the house. We stayed for about half an hour, were given gifts of chocolate and candy, and watched the beginning of what I'm sure was a long night of dancing. It was another great example of hospitality in Jordan, and a fantastic experience. At least Piyali and I speak a little Arabic; I think the boys were a little lost down in the men's section.



Tomorrow, we meet with the International Red Crescent Society. Hopefully we will connect with our friend and hear some more stories of Iraqis living in Jordan. Those conversations are always grueling and exhausting, but in my opinion are more than anything else the reason we are here.

- Nancy

Further on Inquiry

Today, the sub-topics split off once again and the two groups dealing with geopolitics--Bilateral Relations and US-Jordanian Security Cooperation--paired off for the day and headed to the University of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies and later the UN's Office for Project Services. At the same time, the Political Reform subtopic met with a local journalist in an informal setting while the Refugee group met with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

At the University of Jordan, the geopolitics groups met with Dr. Ayman Khalil, an expert on regional security matters and nuclear non-proliferation. The groups discussed with Dr. Khalil the implications of further nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and local perceptions of nuclear threats to Jordanian security. Much of the dialogue focused upon Iraq and the general Arab sentiment that the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 opened the door for further Iranian influence in the region. At the same time, Dr. Khalil stressed the importance of Arab nationalism, which both exacerbates the Arab-Israeli conflict and might also be used to foster a sense of Iraqi unity. Dr. Khalil's unique perspective provided an important counter-proliferation viewpoint to our research and we left the meeting with a better sense of how the Jordanian public views strategic developments.

Later, the geopolitics groups met with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). UNOPS' Iraq Operations Center in Amman coordinates all of its activity inside Iraq and its primary responsibility is to implement many of the projects with other UN organizations create the framework for. In this vein, UNOPS doesn't so much care about politics as results. Consequently, UNOPS has established a close working relationship with the United States in Iraq. While UNOPS would prefer to not receive direct funding from the Department of Defense, UNOPS would like to work with the State Department and USAID in the future to create sustainable reconstruction projects to improve the lives of Iraqis. The apolitical nature of UNOPS presents a great opportunity for the United States and other Coalition partners to contribute to the badly needed reconstruction efforts in Iraq which will ultimately help win the battle of ideas, which is proving ever so much more important than the battle of bullets.

The Refugee group had the privilege of visiting the private home of an Iraqi family late in the day. The group had an informal discussion with the family about their story and how they ended up in Iraq, and came away with a better sense of the human costs of war. While meetings with the UN and academics provide theoretical insights which are invaluable to understanding the dynamic situation on the ground, it was essential for the group to gain a first-hand perspective on the issue.

-Chas

June 15

Today the entire delegation attended a meeting with His Excellency Mr. Nasser Shraideh the Secretary General of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.  Also in attendance were Miss Feda Gharaibeh, the Director of the Coordination Office for the Reconstruction of Iraq and members of her team.  The meeting focused mainly on the impact that Iraqi refugees have made on the planning work of the ministry, particularly pertaining to services and resources.  Unemployment was also mentioned as a central concern for the Ministry of Planning, as the increase in employment opportunities continues to be drastically outstripped by the growing number of educated young people in Jordan, a challenge compounded by the number of educated Iraqis without jobs or permits allowing them to work in the formal economy.  These concerns of the Jordanian government regarding the Iraqi "guests" led into a discussion of Jordan's role in supporting political resolution in Iraq.  This past week the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to Jordan highlighted the growing cooperation and involvement of the two neighbors.  

For the afternoon and evening, the subtopic groups attended meetings pertaining to our particular research focuses, with the group focusing on refugees attending a meeting at UNHCR, and the group studying political reform rejoining with a prior contact and other journalists to discuss our understanding of the issues facing democratization.  Over nargila and with the European Cup in the background, we discussed pillars upon which the establishment in Jordan stands (from their assessment) - the young economic reformers, the tribal leaders, and the security services - and the stability of these pillars given the economic challenges facing Jordan, especially in terms of the distribution of wealth and development.  We also touched on the American election and the expectations that Jordanians have from either a McCain or Obama Administration.  It was a refreshing experience to informally discuss the issues we've encountered in our interviews and broaden the scope of topics of our discourse.  We will return to our formal meetings with a new set of questions and issues to broach.

On a separate note, I am consistently amazed by the importance of soccer in immediately connecting people across cultures.  In my travels, the key to segueing into more candid conversations with people from other countries has been passion for soccer.  The European Cup as the back drop to the evening facilitated a debate not just about who will win the tournament but about how US public diplomacy might benefit if the American public paid greater attention to the global game. 

-Alex Taylor

Madaba

Today was the first day of our second weekend in Jordan. As no one will give interviews or meetings on the weekend, we are taking advantage of this time to explore other parts of the country and observe life and activity outside the capital. This afternoon, I went with Alex T, Margaret, and Ivette to Madaba, another Jordanian city about 1 hour from Amman. We took James, another Tufts student along with us; James has been traveling around the Middle East for a few weeks before enrolling in summer classes at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It just so happens that next year James will be co-chair of the New Initiative for Middle East Peace, another program run through the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts. We were happy to take a fellow IGLer along with us.

We left our apartment at about 11 am and headed to a bus station in downtown Amman. With the help of some very gracious Jordanians, we found the public bus heading to Madaba and hopped on board. We found that taking the bus rather than hiring a cab just for ourselves was a fun way to interact with other people and practice our Arabic. It was also a lot cheaper, about one US dollar per person for a 1 hour ride.

Madaba is famous in Jordan for two reasons -- first, because of the beautiful mosaics found all around the city (many of which are quite old and still being restored) and second because it is still considered a largely Christian city. Before we even reached the city proper, which is located up on a hill, we passed the first church I have seen so far in Jordan. Our first stop in Madaba was St George’s Church, which hosts fragments of a mosaic map that once depicted all the sites mentioned in the Bible from Egypt to Jerusalem. We tried to get our bearings and identify the places on what was left of the beautiful mosaic. I had hoped that taking Professor Mufti’s infamous map quiz last fall would help me in situations like this, but we ended up relying more on the guidebook with us since the map, while extremely detailed, isn’t 100% geographically accurate. The atmosphere in the church was calm and serene, as we were some of the only people there, and we took our time looking at the paintings and elaborate ornamentation in the building. The arrival of a large tour group inspired us to head to our next destination, Mount Nebo.

I was a bit skeptical before actually going to Mt Nebo. I guess the idea of turning a Biblical site into a tourist destination is a little off-putting to me. Biblically, Mt Nebo is the hill Moses climbed to see the Promised Land before he died. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away, or more than marginally impressed, by the place. I was pleasantly surprised, however, both by the somber and respectful treatment of the site and by the view itself. It was pretty awe-inspiring to look across the Dead Sea to the West Bank. Yet again, I was reminded of how close everything in this region is to everything else.

One official related a story to us in a recent meeting to illustrate this point. He described how, when flying into Amman over Israel, the pilot invited him into the cockpit to better see the view. On one side of the view, he said, he could see Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Amman in a straight line. On the other side, he saw Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. When I read about these places, I imagine them further apart, and more isolated from one another. Being here in Amman, so close to those five major cities as well as multiple other places that I read about in my classes at Tufts, has really drilled home for me the reality of space and place in the Middle East. Here in Jordan, a country often considered “a good house in a bad neighborhood,” I feel the weight and confluence of all the historical and contemporary realities that I’ve studied. I was wrong to view the war in Iraq as an event largely separate from the recent fighting in Lebanon, or from the political reform process in Jordan, or from a resolution to Israel-Palestine. These cities, the countries they are in and the events that happen in them, are anything but isolated from one another.

Later in the evening, after returning to Amman, we met up with Katie, a Fletcher alumna working at the US Embassy. We went with Katie to a café near our apartment to watch the soccer game between France and Norway. The café was virtually full of people, all smoking, drinking tea and coffee, and watching the game. I really enjoyed the experience; it’s true that sports bring people together.

Tomorrow we have plans to visit Jerash in the morning, followed by an afternoon and evening of preparation for our coming week’s meetings. I am particularly excited about meeting with UNHCR, the World Health Organization, and the UN Population Fund. We’ve yet to get the UN’s perspective on our topic, and it’s obviously a critical component of our topic. We are also setting up a focus group of Iraqis in Jordan through Save the Children, which will add a much-needed perspective to my group’s research. Though my group was initially looking at legal status for Iraqis in Jordan, the meetings we have had so far are pushing us in a different direction. We'd like to examine two contrasting frameworks that can be used by the Jordanian government and the international community to address the Iraqi refugee crisis in Jordan – first, viewing the refugees through the prism of their impact on traditional national security, or second, through the lens of human security. This will make for an interesting and relevant application of theoretical discourse to a concrete subject. In my opinion, it will be a fantastic basis for the policy memo that we will write at the end of the trip.

- Nancy

ALLIES in High Places

Today we had one of our highest profile meetings: our entire group spent almost two hours with Jordan's Minister of State for Communication and Media, Nasser Judeh. His Excellency spoke off the record with us and provided great insight to the government's perspective on many of the themes that have been recurring in our other interviews. Even in our meetings that are off the record, our own learning is deepened by seeing the contrast between many points of view. We are excited about the fact that even if specific quotes will not be included in our final output, we are successfully pursuing a well-rounded picture of the effects of the Iraq War in Jordan

Our Jordanian Security and Iraqi Bilateral Relations groups had the unique chance later this afternoon to meet with the director of the Iraqi Support Unit. Foreign Service Officer Vince Raimondi seemed as excited to meet with us as we were to meet with him, even questioning if we weren't really looking for the Political Office before actually sitting down. He spent the next 45 minutes sharing every aspect of his "off-shore" facility, intermittently using the term "external relations" and "logistics staff" to modestly avoid taking credit for the entirety his responsibility; externally running the American Embassy in Baghdad from Amman, until security improves in the Iraqi capital. The Iraqi Support Unit was founded at the end of 2003 to "provide support to the embassy office in Baghdad." Currently, with only 34 staffers and working out of a make-shift office on the ground floor of the Amman Embassy, the ISU provides safe transportation, country clearance, transitional housing and the accompanying logistics for some 50 individuals per week to move to the Baghdad Embassy facility, a monstrous structure he described as "likely the size of the Vatican." The Unit is also responsible for the recruitment and staffing of the Baghdad Embassy itself, including a relatively new program that hires Jordanians to work in one-year increments in Baghdad, so as not to endanger local Iraqis as staffers. Although the ISU was intended to be a temporary office, it has become a very necessary element of the re installment of diplomacy in Baghdad. Mr. Raimondi was also very insistent that the bad press the Baghdad Embassy has received in relation to staffing is completely unfounded; in his managerial experience there has been more than enough applicants for the new positions in Iraq, civilian and military, foreign service and foreign national. On a final note, he could not have been more complimentary of the local support and the close cooperation between the US and Jordanian security forces.

Tomorrow, most of our group will leave early in the morning for an overnight hike to Wadi Hassa. We have been advised to bring only backpacks and a change of clothes, as we will most certainly get wet, and the tour company will provide all the food and equipment necessary for a night under the stars and scaling a waterfall the next morning. The rest of our group is planning to spend this weekend exploring some of the other historical sites around Amman.

-Mia and Margaret

Palestine -Israel...inevitably?

Dear Blog,

Yesterday, June 11th, everybody here in Jordan working on the JRP was busy with meetings. The first meeting of the day was at 10 A.M. with Tawfique Hasou, the Director of Research at the Jordanian Institute of Diplomacy. The JID is an institution for academic research and training, in order to "build the capacity of human resources". Most members of the group attended this extremely informative meeting. The main topic of discussion was how the Arab-Israeli conflict affects the whole region, but specifically Jordan. All of us gained a new perspective on not only this conflict but also on US involvement in the process. The Arab-Israeli conflict has become a theme of many meetings so far, and this issue is obviously very important to everybody in the Middle East.

After trying new kinds of food at Old Times Restaurant on Rainbow Street, the eight of us that attended the first meeting split up into two groups to attend two more meetings. In the afternoon, myself, Margaret, Sally, Ivette, Chas, and Mia got the opportunity to speak with Dr. Oraib Al Rantawi from the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, an independent research institute that studies many different problems facing Jordan. Mr. Al Rantawi discussed with us at length issues ranging from security threats to Jordan to political reform challenges within Jordan. This meeting was just as informative as the first meeting of the day, and after this, the six of us headed back to the apartments to record our notes and reflections on the computer.

The refugee group was able to conduct their first interview with an Iraqi refugee today. Thanks to Ibrahim, their friend at the downtown suq whom they met last week while shopping, they went to a makha - coffeshop - nearby and spoke with an Iraqi man from Basra who came over in the 1990s. While his story was not directly related to the 2003 war, he is unable to return and laments not being able to see his family that all live in Basra. During the course of the discussion, several men joined in and left, as could be expected in such circumstances because of the customs here in the Middle East. People gave their inputs and opinions regarding everyhting from what the next US president should do to how the Palestine - Israel feud could be solved. Apparantly, the Palestinian issue is more important than what is currently happening in Iraq according to all - even the Iraqi refugee. This synchronized perfectly with the opinion that Mr. Hasou expressed at the meeting earlier today at the Institute of Diplomacy. If the Palestinian issue is solved, there would be no need for extremism and no need for the wars that chronically plague the region, as they explained. Perhaps not as simple, it is nonetheless crucial to our research to understand that Iraq is less of a dire issue, despite the level of displacement and bloodshed of the Iraqi people. Frankly, it seems rather illogical, but I suppose it reveals more a mindset and character of the people - a finding that appears no where in the literature that calls for more money, more aid, more services, and espouses cold numbers.

The group will hopefully return to Ibrahim tomorrow to speak with a young man they met at the store also, who was displaced as result of the 2003 war and who is now a UNHCR card-carrying refugee living in Jordan. The comparison with the older man they met with today would be helpful and hopefully he will be able to lead them to further contacts and stories. In sha'allah.

--Zack and Piyali

More answers, more questions...

The day began for the committee focusing on political reform with a meeting at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German non-profit organization that aims to promote democracy and to build civil society capacity in Jordan.  The program manager, Mr. Mohammed Khalil, spoke with us about the internal challenges facing Jordan regarding political reform, including the current electoral law and the political parties law.  One interesting aspect of democracy promotion we discussed during the course of our meeting was the intersection between international NGO's and IGO's efforts to promote democracy and the efforts of domestic, Jordanian NGO's to build civil society.  

Another important actor in this arena of democracy promotion in Jordan is USAID.  Today, the committees examining political reform and the Iraqi refugee crisis had the opportunity to meet with the Director of Program Management of USAID as well as numerous other technical team leaders and directors of USAID projects for health, water, education, economic development, and governance.  We discussed numerous issues during the course of our meeting, including the crisis level of water scarcity in Jordan and Jordan's ability to cope with Iraqi refugees in its health and education services.  Most interesting for myself, as a member of the political reform subtopic, was the discussion of USAID's governance project.  Similar to other international organizations we've encountered, USAID has focused on the infrastructure and capacity building underlying democratic development, such as equipping courts with automative capabilities and IT as well as channelling funds through Freedom House and the National Democratic Institute to carry out political party training among other activities.

However, the day's meetings left me with many questions.  For instance, how do international actors promote bottom-up momentum for political and civil society development in another country?  While foreign organizations such as USAID partner with Jordanian civil society organizations, what are the aims of the domestic organizations?  How does an organization carry out a needs assessment for political and civil society development?  Civil society is a term we hear often but is not clearly defined.  How can organizations claim to have effectively built the capacity of civil society actors without clearly defined goals?  How do we assess the success of the variety of governance projects in Jordan?  We will continue to investigate these questions as our time in Jordan progresses. 

On a separate note, this evening was another pleasurable example of the discourse achieved between the civilian and military members of our delegation.  Not only have we been able to hash out various issues we contend with in our research, but our dialogue this evening spanned our personal aspirations for what we as individuals, from our very different perspectives as global actors, can hope to accomplish in the world.  The content of the JRP while a stimulus for dialogue in itself, has additionally provoked the members of our delegation to reach other levels of intellectual engagement.  

--Alex Taylor

July 9

This morning, the refugee group visited Caritas, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Health Organization. We used the time to familiarize ourselves with the organizations and set up in-depth meetings for late this week and early next week. As stated in the last post, we have found the UN buildings in Amman to be fairly accessible; multiple organizations that are not easily contacted via email are reached simply by going to the door and asking for meetings.

The security cooperation group used a free afternoon for a more in-depth look at the heart of Amman. We visited a few areas of the city center that we hadn’t yet explored before returning to the bazaar above Hashemite Square, and a shopkeeper whom we had befriended on one of the first days we arrived. He directed us to the Citadel, a set of ruins that sits on one of the highest hilltops in town, which is exactly why we hadn’t yet gone to see it. In spite of the heat, the trek up was actually quite nice, as the residential areas it took us through provided a more realistic picture of life in Jordan than the cluster of buildings around our apartment. We encountered a lot of children on the walk up. There was one boy who looked nine, said that he was fifteen, and puffed on his cigarette like an experienced twenty-something as he tried to persuade us to go with him to the neighborhood sports center (“sports” in this case meaning “billiards”). We told him, several times, that no, sorry, we are on our way to the Temple of Hercules. He walked away when he realized we were serious. In all, however, the children were very friendly, and proved the perfect audience for us to practice our Arabic: they giggled so much on their own that it was impossible to tell when they were laughing at our mistakes.

Tomorrow, we have meetings with Dr. Hassan al Momani, Director of the International Relations program and Dr. Rula Quawas, Director of the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan, as well as with Special Agent Andrew Schad, Defense Attache and the USAID technical team at the Embassy. We are looking forward to another productive day in Jordan.

Sometimes one just has to ask...

Today was a fruitful day all around. After a good roundtable meeting this morning with the whole crew, we were able to work out some kinks and issues regarding the goals, pace and methods of conducting our unique kind of research. Energized to utilize our best faculties and go out into the field to secure interviews and explore Amman to truly have the cultural and educational experience we set out to do, several small groups headed out and came out with great results and leads.

A huge highlight was walking over to the UNHCR headquarters here in Amman - literally a 5 minute walk from our compound in Abdoun - and knocking on their door. Rounding the corner to see a cluster of Iraqi refugees standing outside the building, it was slightly daunting since we did not have an interview, a contact, or plan on how to make our way in and be heard. However, with some of the ideas thrown out at the meeting from the morning still fresh in our minds (see below), the Refugee committee decided that they had nothing to lose by asking. And ask we did. We were led into the front security desk right before the entrance and a spokeswoman from the Public Information proposed an interview for tomorrow at 3 pm on the spot! Granted, we will be meeting with PR people, but hopefully someone from security will also come as we mentioned we are studying the legal status of refugees as well. This is honestly such a boon given that the refugee group has not been able to make contact with this all important group...
The committee had further luck with the meeting at Save the Children with Dennis Walto who provided a wealth of information regarding the issue of education of Iraqi children, which is the only large scale multilateral operation regarding assistance to refugees, with the government of JO, many UN agencies and bilateral donors on board. Hopefully we will be able to follow up with some visits to schools with some of the Iraqi children. The committee also went to University of Jordan and inquired about meeting with academics regarding several project topics, and to our luck, have been granted a meeting with the head of International Studies and the head of Women's Studies this coming Tuesday.

In addition to the refugee committee's success in scheduling meetings, the groups examining political reform and Jordanian-Iraqi relations conducted an informative meeting with Mohammed Abu Rumman, a journalist from the Al Ghad Arabic Daily and expert on the Islamist movement in Jordan, and Hassan Barari, a member of the faculty of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan specializing in the Middle East peace process and regional security issues. The two scholars shared their extensive knowledge of Jordanian and regional politics, clearly illustrating for us the role that Jordan has played in the Iraq conflict as well as the various debates currently occurring within the regime regarding political reform and the government's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, we discussed the democracy promotion efforts of the US in the Middle East, the ebb and flow of these efforts, their efficacy, and US credibility in such an intertwined region. Suffice it to say, the day's events have given us a lot of new information to process as we move forward speaking to more people about our research.

June 7

Today was our second weekend day in Jordan, and we used it to prepare for next week’s interviews and explore more of Amman. After a morning of emailing new contacts, transcribing interviews, and typing up notes and reflections from last week’s meetings we split up into groups and headed into different parts of the city. Piyali, Alex B, and I started our afternoon off with lunch at Mataam al-Hashaam, a popular local restaurant with killer humus and foul (beans). The mint tea was excellent as well, and it was a good opportunity to eat in a local setting common for most Jordanians. Next, we walked to the Citadel, a hill towering over the rest of Amman with ruins stretching from the Middle Ages to the Umayyad period. The most impressive structure, in my opinion, was the Umayyad palace towards the center of the hill. It was truly stunning and beautiful to walk inside and look up into the dome at the top of the building. Before leaving, we sat on the edge of the hill and took advantage of the beautiful view of Amman. Since all three of us are in the Iraqi refugees subtopic, we chatted about what we’ve learned so far and what questions we still have. Specifically, we discussed the need to understand the Palestinian issue in Jordan, and the impact the Palestinian refugee issue has had on Jordan’s response to refugees. This is something we had considered before coming to Amman, but is a larger factor in our research that we initially expected. We are really looking forward to some upcoming meetings, including one tomorrow with Save the Children director Dennis Walto, which will hopefully answer some of our questions and inspire new ones.

Next, we walked down from the hill towards a local café in downtown Amman. The walk was roundabout and took about half an hour, during which we were able to see more the city. Several teenagers saw Piyali’s camera and called us over to take a picture of them. This happened to me a few times when I was in Yemen last summer as well, and both then and now I find it a fun way to interact a bit with people I wouldn’t otherwise. We arrived at the café and enjoyed some tea while talking more about what we’ve learned here, as well as the differences in the education we are receiving at our respective institutions. Good conversations like this are one of the things I like most about ALLIES—the way it brings people together

We finished up our day with mensaf, a dish of lamb over a bed of rice, at a Palestinian restaurant in downtown Amman. At dinner, Alex impressed both of us with his ability to consume bis-bis (very spicy) pepper without so much as a tear or sip of water. Our conversation continued through dinner, until we took a cab back to our apartment where we reconnected with the rest of the group and prepared interview questions and plans for the next day.

In addition to Save the Children, tomorrow the group is meeting with Mr. Mohammed Abu Rumman, a journalist at the Jordan Times. We are really looking forward to meeting such a prominent figure in Jordanian journalism, and the meeting should prove particularly useful to the groups studying political reform and Jordanian-Iraqi bilateral relations.

Please pass the salt

We went to the Dead Sea today. Our journey actually began last night, when Tim, Ivette, Piyali and I took a taxi to a bus station at the edge of town. It was the sort of place where you get out of the relative isolation of the taxi cab and become suddenly and acutely aware that the pigment of your skin is at least three shades lighter than that of everyone around you. We could only tell this from the males, of course, because the females are all covered from head to toe, and they stared intently at the four of us who are quite obviously not. Nevertheless, we pressed on, not because we felt particularly daring, but because we wanted to get to the Dead Sea without having to sacrifice our ability to buy food the next week. Tour guides, we’ve found, are very expensive.


The bus drivers were all very friendly, and eager for our business. Unfortunately, discerning anything beyond that required a level of Arabic proficiency that no one in our group possessed. We left with a few phone numbers and a new friend named Mufeed, who, when he found out we were from America, said “Ah, New Jersey, Virginia Beach!” We did not take his bus.
We left at nine o’clock in the morning. Our bus was the approximate size and shape of Scooby’s Mystery Machine, only less colorful and in a greater state of disrepair. It didn’t matter to us, though, because once we left the city and started down the highway, it became far more compelling to watch the desert roll past the open windows than to wonder who had been sitting in our places the day before. We knew we were getting close when we began to see signs, large, red, and written entirely in English that said, “WARNING: SALTY WATER” under a picture of a swimmer with his hands in the air like his team had just scored a touchdown, or perhaps like he was drowning. It made me question for a moment whether the Dead Sea got its name because it doesn’t have any fish, or because unsuspecting swimmers who couldn’t tell from the thick gray haze in the air or oily gleam on the water’s surface that this was not normal water, and so decided to submerge their heads.


The Dead Sea is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world, a fact that was made painfully clear to anyone who entered the lake with an open wound, or who happened to get a drop of water on or near an eye. The shores are rimmed with deposits of salt where the water evaporates from the sand, and even larger rocks lie buried in the black mud that tourists, and undergraduate student researchers, like to plaster on their skin. However, it is second to Lake Asal in Djibouti in terms of overall salinity. The Dead Sea is also the lowest point on the surface of the earth, something that didn’t mean much to any of us until we realized that somewhere, 420 meters above us, was the ocean. We spent a good deal of the morning floating on our backs, basking in the sun, and staring across at the cliffs of the West Bank. A good part of the afternoon we spent wondering why the third language on all the beachside signs, aside from Arabic and English, was German.


Because the Dead Sea has insufficient inflow of water, evaporation has caused it to shrink rapidly in recent decades. It has fallen twenty-two meters since 1970, to 418 meters below sea level, and is currently dropping at a rate of one meter per year. Its preservation has become a subject of interest not only to Jordan, but to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and various other organizations in the international community.

Tomorrow is the last day of our first weekend in Jordan. If it is anything like the first day, it will be a wonderful chance to recharge for a second week of hard work.

June 5

Today a lot of light was shed on the Iraqi refugee situation and the Jordanian political arena. We visited two very different, independent NGOs in Amman, one the model of the 'homegrown' civil society organization that was talked about yesterday at the US Embassy, and the other a western-based, internationally known, humanitarian and advocacy organization. The former, MIZAN, provided a lot of insight into how Jordanians actually feel about the reform process underway through the current rhetoric and policies. Speaking with a lawyer who works pro bono to counsel and aid citizens and Iraqi refugees on their legal rights under the JO constitution, it became clear that while the rhetoric is admirable, the implementation of such policies and actual change on the ground is much slower. It seems that most Jordanians are quite unaware of their rights and that there is not much of a civil society, despite the safety and stability of Jordan that certainly made me thing it was otherwise. The NGO also worked to counsel Iraqi refugees (who were again deemed to be numbered around the 500K). The legal status of the Iraqis were attested to be indeed lacking in many guarantees, as most are now illegally here and unable to pay to overstay their visas and get work permits. In fact, the only legitimate rule of law to point to when trying to help Iraqi refugees is UNHCR codes, as there are not refugee laws and immigration laws show that most are illegal in the first place.



This was an important point that came up again when we went to CARE International and learned the more human side (via anecdotes and such) of what it means to be status-less in a country. This had a profound influence on, especially since we met an Iraqi refugee at the market the other day (UNHCR card and all) who did not seem to know where his family was and could only explain that he wanted to leave Jordan for America. He was 27 and selling vegetables. America has only taken in around 3k Iraqis into the US since the start of the war.

Today's interviews seemed on the outset to be most heavily beneficial for a few selected topics, but all of us certainly benefited from the experience. Through these interviews, and more informal ones that we have conducted throughout the past few days, an accurate picture of the issues that we're studying is really starting to come together.

As the weekend in Jordan is Friday/Saturday, we intend to start our cultural excursions with the Dead Sea tomorrow.

Good evening from Amman!

Today the group woke at 8:00 AM, donned our Sunday best, and arrived bright and early at the United States embassy just five minutes down the road from our apartment in West Amman.

After going through many layers of security during which our cameras, cell phones, and recording devices were stored away, we were escorted into the building by Katherine Schaefer, a Presidential Management Fellow in the Public Affairs office and Fletcher School alumna. Ms. Schaefer helped to arranged our interviews with USAID officials, defense attachés, public affairs representatives.

Just minutes after sitting down for coffee and beginning our meeting, His Excellency Ambassador David Hale stepped in unexpectedly and sat down for our interview. After introducing himself and the embassy's work, we engaged in a question and answer session for about thirty minutes.

Topics covered ranged from Iraqi refugees in Jordan and their role in the post-2003 Jordan to the extent to which the United States and Jordan cooperate militarily and diplomatically. The insights from the embassy staff were extremely helpful and a great start to our month of research.

Following a lunch of highly affordable falafel sandwiches, a small group met with a journalist from the Jordan Times to hammer out the logistics of future meetings and interviews.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with the director of CARE International - Jordan. Until then, good night!

Getting Started & Fun in Amman

Dear Blog,

We had our first unofficial meeting regarding the Joint Research Project. We discussed such pertinent issues as our final products, logistical and admin points, and our mission while here. Final products may include a media presentation, policy memos, and a 20-30 page paper on each subtopic (subtopics mentioned in paragraph 3 of Post 1 on 24 May 2008).

We then divided into subtopic groups to discuss each area in more detail and attempt to focus our research questions. Although no group reached one consensus on what exact direction each subtopic would take, each group did decide that we'll use our first few interviews to guide the direction that we take in our research.

After our fun meeting, we took a break to make more contacts, solve logistical issues, and eat lunch. At 4 in the afternoon, we took cabs into the center of Amman to check out the city a bit. The group was able to walk around the shops in Amman and some old ruins such as the Roman theater. Most also sipped sweet tea with mint leaves outside the embassy. Those who know some Arabic had the chance to brush up on some skills, and make new friends. Many Jordanians are very willing to help us with Arabic, but most also know a lot of English. This makes getting around very easy.

Some new friends that we made today include Nick, Mohammed, Ahmad, and Tareeq. Myself, Alex B, Chas, and Margaret met Nick and Mohammed as they were trying to sell us books. As Alex, Chas, and Margaret talked to Nick (an Arab Christian), I attempted speaking Arabic with Mohammed, a man about my age, or maybe one or two years older. We were able to discuss important topics such as his girlfriend in Amman, who he only ever meets on the street to talk with for a short while. Although he spoke fast, I understood most of what he said, until we couldn't get past one troublesome Arabic word. He stopped two random people on the street to ask for help, and they explained that Mohammed was trying to say "by chance". I thought that these two students would immediately leave; instead, Ahmad and Tareeq stopped to talk. After finding out that I am from the United States, Ahmad apologized to me for the September 11th attacks. When I asked him why, he said he was sorry for his fellow Muslims. I thanked him, but explained that I understand that not all Muslims or Arabs are terrorists. This led to a discussion, half in Arabic and half in English, about the misperceptions that Americans, Arabs, and Muslims hold about each other. He explained to me that not all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists, and that Arabs are not lazy people. I explained to him that the U.S. is a country of much religious diversity, and not all Americans hate Arabs and Muslims. As the conversation digressed to other topics relating to Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis, I realized that I was surprised that random people would stop to talk with us for so long, and also happy that our new friends were so friendly and welcoming. After talking for so long, the four of us forgot what time it was and realized that we were late for dinner. After exchanging email addresses with Mohammed, Ahmad, and Tareeq, we jumped into a cab and sped back to the house for dinner, happy that we had met these new friends.

We start our project tomorrow with a visit to the Embassy, and everybody is working hard and also very excited. Watch for more updates!

Ahlan wa Sahlan

Welcome to Jordan! Leaving Queen Alia Airport, a road sign pointing motorists toward the Iraqi and Saudi borders made it unmistakably clear that we had arrived in Jordan.

We have spent the past 24 hours getting acquainted with our apartment, neighborhood and each other. After months of email correspondence and conference calls, we were assemble the entire group for the first time. Grocery shopping, cooking dinner, griping about lost luggage, and raving over our beautiful apartment were built-in icebreakers. More than one person noted that our neighborhood, Deir Ghbar, is both swank and "under construction". As soon as one turns off a major thoroughfare, the streets are quiet and lined with luxe 3 and 4-story houses and apartments, fronted by small gardens. These small patches of deep green provide a shady rest for eyes scorched by the bright, bright sun. Tim, our multi-media guru gave us all a tip for documenting our time here: "Photography in Jordan Lesson 1: Everything is overexposed. Naturally."

We're looking forward to embarking on our research tomorrow. The first step will be to follow up with contacts who asked that we contact them and arrange appointments upon arrival. Our first official meeting is Wednesday, with a number of figures at the American Embassy.

-Margaret


The 2008 JRP Participants are:
Alex Burtness, US Naval Academy '10; Systems Engineering
Tim Fitzsimons, Tufts University '10; International Relations
Mia Hencinski, US Naval Academy '10; Political Science
Nancy Henry (project lead), Tufts University '09; Political Science & Anthropology
Piyali Kundu, Tufts University '10; International Relations & Community Health
Chas Morrison, Tufts University '11; International Relations & Political Science
Margaret O'Connor, Tufts University '10; Community Health & Political Science
Ivette Tarrida, The Fletcher School '09; Security Studies
Alex Taylor (project lead), Tufts University; International Relations
Zack Tedoff, US Military Academy '09; International Relations
Sally White, US Military Academy '09; International Relations