This report’s assessment period, from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2023, has been marked by Jordan’s recovery from the pandemic and a return to pre-pandemic norms in both the economic and political spheres. On the economic front, GDP grew by 2.2% in 2021 and an additional 2% in 2022. This growth has been driven by expansions in the service and industrial sectors, as well as tourism’s unexpectedly strong recovery. Despite these positive macroeconomic indicators, job creation has not been widespread, which has been an ongoing challenge to Jordan’s economic policymaking.

The Gnassingbé clan has ruled the country since 1967. Throughout the survey period, demands for political change initiated by institutional and electoral reforms were a major issue of contention between the government and the challengers of the Gnassingbé regime. An alliance of opposition parties and civil society groups organized peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the regime. These demonstrations were often violently suppressed. Civil society organizations and representatives of the Christian church supported the opposition’s demands.

The crucial event in the reporting period was undoubtedly Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan. On September 27, 2020 Azerbaijan started its war on Nagorno-Karabakh, a long-disputed region called Artsakh in Armenia, which lasted for 44 days. It ended on November 10, 2020, when Russia facilitated a cease-fire, apparently just after the Azerbaijani forces had captured most of the territories occupied by Armenia in the previous war in the early 1990s, plus a major chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh proper.