Topic: Situation in the Middle East
Country: Jordan
Delegate Name: Isabel Ivanescu
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Jordan position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The current situation in the Middle East comprises a third world war, and our response its causes, events, and aftermaths must be calibrated accordingly. This is a war to be fought on five fronts: the military, the political, the economic, the humanitarian, and most importantly, the ideological. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan now vows to lead the charge across all five. We seek the full-fledged support of the Security Council, the United Nations, and the wider international community in doing so.
Against an army of militants that sling antiquated guns over their shoulders and strap improvised bombs to their chests, our first and most clear recourse is to take direct military action, and to do so in way that exercises the entire extent of our technological and organizational superiority while minimizing the risk to the citizens of our nations and the 6 million civilians of Daesh-occupied territory (1).
Jordan remains unwilling to engage ground forces in Daesh-controlled Syria or Iraq, and is wary of any such intervention by any nation; this unwillingness and wariness, however, is not the result of a refusal to commit fully to the effort, but a result of a feeling that the dispatching of ground troops would constitute a strategic miscalculation. As evidenced in countless cases, an attempt at warfare against a guerilla army or terrorist organization that makes primary use of conventional land forces is ill-advised at best and disastrous at worst.
Instead, Jordan promotes a furtherance and amplification of the present policy centered on airstrikes and covert operations. We must exploit Daesh’s complete lack of air power and rudimentary intelligence capabilities. We must come at them with a never-ending onslaught that they do not have the capacity to combat. Measures that so seize upon Daesh weaknesses will prove to be the most effective use of our resources, as we can nearly guarantee their success. Furthermore, the distanced and targeted nature of air and covert campaigns makes them inherently low-risk for operators as well as noncombatants. Jordan has been one of the four Arab states to conduct relentless airstrikes and be involved in countless special operations, as such we can credibly attest to their outcomes.
Many critics point to continued Daesh command of large swathes of Iraq and Syria to claim that current strategy has failed, here Jordan would point to the lack of Daesh expansion to claim its success. Though greater intensification and optimization will lead to increased operational effectiveness, Jordan believes that the fundamental goal of military involvement must be to keep Daesh’s conquering at bay while its holdings are compromised through other means. From this committee, we ask nothing more than sustained legal support; from the member-states of this committee, we ask for personal involvement in coalition actions.
To retract slightly any confirmatory statement made against involving ground troops, Jordan would be willing to consider the dispatching of United Nations peacekeepers to various areas of Syria and Iraq after the eradication of Daesh. Though statistical and case studies have demonstrated that peacekeeping forces are ineffective at protecting civilians during times of war, they have also demonstrated that peacekeeping forces are quite effective at reducing instability recidivism. (2)
In addressing Daesh, it becomes necessary to address the political circumstances that have allowed the group to come to power and retain that power. The three primary circumstances that have facilitated the current state of affairs are Syria’s civil war, Iraq’s fragile and failed state, and the worsening Israel-Palestine rift; all must be immediately dealt with.
The civil war has radicalized many factions within Syria whose desperation to oust Assad has outmatched any ideological preferences and has armed and mobilized many preexisting radicals. As such, any comprehensive solution to Daesh must requisitely involve some cessation of the Syrian conflict. It is Jordan’s firm position that time for President Bashar al-Assad to step down has long since been upon us; however, his departure from office must be carefully choreographed and orchestrated so that the Middle East is not faced with yet another of the power vacuums that have allowed Daesh to thrive. Jordan posits that, in dealing with this issue, the Security Council resolve that al-Assad’s holding of office must end while proposing a negotiated termination and provisional government found to be suitable by both moderate opposition forces and the Assad regime.
In Iraq, divided and impotent governance over the last decade has provided extremist forces the ability to make significant land gains. This situation, though regrettable, cannot be summarily addressed; nation building is a time-consuming and resource-taxing process, and the Iraqi government seems to already be taking the necessary steps. Though the United Nations could and should provide more assistance in this case, that matter is best left to jurisdiction of General Assembly and Economic and Social Committees, as well as other UN organs.
The ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians also provokes an ample source of radicalized persons ripe for Daesh recruitment. The lack of progress towards a two-state solution and the lack of mutual respect for differing religions has left the region in a dangerous state. We urge that all parties strive to reach a solution through the Security Council or otherwise as quickly as possible.
With regard to economically attacking Daesh capabilities, our focus should be on strengthening the domestic economies of neighboring nations while choking off the funding streams of Daesh including but not limited to oil revenues, drug trade, and hostage ransom payments.
Given that the situation we are considering is akin to a world war, it may be useful to consider implementation of revised iterations of the great policy coups of either of the two previous world wars, among these is the Marshall Plan. In the 1940s and 1950s, a package of aid and stimulus directed at improving the economic standing of crippled European nations at risk of falling into the hands of extremists of various sorts was highly successful. Similarly, Jordan believes that comprehensive economic aid to the nations afflicted by popular radicalization could work to prevent the further spread of extremism and stem the flow of foreign fighters. It is well-established and unfortunate fact that economic discontent and instability leads many to turn against legitimate governance and toward radical groups, like Daesh, that provide a pathway for anti-government acts and frequently serve as an income source. If economic discontent and instability can be quelled, this issue will be diminished.
A key factor that has allowed Daesh to remain a threat is the massive revenues that it generates. The UN Security Council can take action to reduce these revenues. First, we can impose stricter sanctions on Daesh and impose more severe penalties for their violation. Second, we can consider the establishment of a global database of legitimate oil production so buyers can be fully apprised of the origin of the petroleum they are purchasing. Third, we can encourage prosecution of the black market traders and middlemen Daesh employs. Fourth, we can warn against the paying of ransoms. While there was a time when Jordan considered monetary payments or prisoner releases in exchange for the return of the Jordanian citizen that Daesh murdered with such depravity, Jordan has since learned that throughout that period Daesh was negotiating in bad faith and had already conducted its gruesome killing. If ransom payments will not yield the return of hostages, not only are they futile, but highly detrimental in any effort to choke off Daesh capital.
Approaching the issue from a humanitarian standpoint suggests the necessity of providing relief for those trapped in territory that has been taken by Daesh as well as aid to those who have managed to flee to relative safety within the borders of a different nation. We must do so not only out of compassionate convictions, but for the sake of our security as well; like economic troubles, poor living conditions and neglect by the international community will continue to breed extremism.
To assist those in Daesh-occupied zones, we must first develop a mechanism of delivering aid; though in previous conflicts, convoys marked with the symbol of the United Nations have nearly always been permitted entry and granted safe passage, Daesh obeys none of the existing protocols of human rights or existing rules of engagement, so it is absurd to assume they would follow this one. Aid could perhaps be distributed through very limited covert actions, but such determinations are best left to the experts. The Security Council can contribute authorization for the provision of as much aid as can be mustered and reiterated condemnation for the deplorable state of human rights in Daesh territory, though such condemnation does little to change circumstance on the ground, it does at least send a clear message to the world at large.
Assisting refugees, and the nations that like Jordan share the burden of caring for them, is a far more straightforward task, yet the international community seems to have stalled in its implementation. In Jordan, refugees from both the Syrian civil war and Daesh number over 800,000 and now comprise nearly 15% of our population. (3) Our nation has indiscriminately admitted all those seeking safety or asylum, and has done so out of Jordanian charitable character that many nations would do well to match; we thank Lebanon and Turkey for also admitting vast number of refugees from this conflict. It seems, however, that our charitable character has placed us in an untenable position; our citizens suffer and our economy collapses under the added strain of providing for so many who are not yet in the position to contribute to our society.
Instead of granting the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan the assistance that is so desperately needed and the thanks that is so richly deserved, the international community has simply stood by and watched. So we ask again, and ask the Security Council to gather monetary donations and other contributions from all willing states and divide them among the nations charged with the protection of refugees in accordance with the number they support and the strain their societies are showing. We also ask Member States to increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and World Food Program, whose budgets have faced cuts even in this most trying of times.
Though military, political, economic, and humanitarian measures are all critically needed and will be highly beneficial, the most important battle we wage, and that on which we must focus the brunt of our resources, is one of ideology. If there were no extremists, there would be no militants. If existing extremists could not propagate their misperceptions, there would be no new militants and no foreign fighters. If existing extremists could be dissuaded, there would be widespread demobilization of militants.
As our king, His Majesty King Abdullah declared to the General Assembly earlier this year, there are seven principles we must pursue in our war of ideology: 1) “Get back to basics…to what we hold in common: deep values of love, peace, justice and compassion.” 2) “Change our tone…our world is also threatened when violence, fear and anger dominate our discourse, whether in school lessons or weekly sermons or international affairs.” 3) “Act upon our beliefs…by loving our neighbor, showing respect to those different from us, being kind to our own children.” 4) “Amplify the voice of moderation…populate our media, and more important, the minds of our young people, with the purity and power of moderation.” 5) “Recognize deceit…when we examine the motives of extremists on all sides – we find hunger for power and control: of people, of money, of land. They use religion as a mask.” 6) “Be intolerant of intolerance…leaders of every country, every belief, every neighborhood, need to take a clear and public stand against intolerance of any kind.” 7) “Hyper-connectivity…bringing us together in collective consciousness and common cause.” (4)
We must produce measures to spread these principles, and to prevent extremists from using our media and technological mediums to spread theirs. One such measure Jordan adopted last year was a domestic criminalization of internet activities supporting Daesh and sermonizing of extremism; (5) such a model could mitigate extremist pontification in many other nations as well. The passage of one law, however, is not enough; the Security Council must immediate consider other anti-propaganda efforts.
Jordan is terribly saddened by the events that have transpired in, and the khawarej that have afflicted, the Middle East over the course of the past two years, but Jordan is pleased by the opportunity to engage with the other nations of the United Nations Security Council in what we hope will be a forthright and fruitful debate regarding a variety of proposals. We are certain that all nations will stand with us on the importance of obliterating Daesh and confident that our proposed solutions will have broad support from the members of this Council.
Notes:
(1) The Islamic State Backgrounder, The Council on Foreign Relations, 2015
(2) The Case for UN Peacekeeping Expert Brief, The Council on Foreign Relations, 2011
(3) Country Profile of Jordan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2015
(4) Remarks by His Majesty King Abdullah II At the Plenary Session of the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations, 2015
(5) Jordan Wages War on ISIL at Home, Al Jazeera, 2014
