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Middle East Review of International Affairs
The 1991 Gulf War and Jordan's Economy
by Ziad Swaidan and Mihai Nica
*
Editor's Note
This article examines the 1990-1991 Kuwait crisis's damaging effect on Jordan's economy. Trade with Iraq was an important aspect of Jordan's economy and transshipment from Jordan's port of Aqaba to Iraq had been especially profitable for Amman. This enterprise was stopped by the war and then by the sanctions on Iraq. Other key elements for Jordan, such as Iraq's sale of reduced-price oil, financial aid from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, remittances from expatriate Jordanians working in the Gulf, and to some extent international tourism all came to an abrupt after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Introduction
Early in the morning on August 2, 1990, more than 100,000 Iraqi troops crossed the border and invaded Kuwait. Few people expected that their relations would reach this bloody end. The Gulf War divided the Arab world into two camps, with a small group supporting Iraq (Jordan, PLO, Sudan, and Yemen), and the rest supporting Kuwait. Many countries would feel the consequences of the invasion, but few are still as deeply affected as Jordan has been by that conflict's economic and political fall-out.
Even though Jordan is not, of course, itself a Gulf state, its interests are very much influenced by events there. Lacking oil and valuable natural resources itself, trade and aid involving Gulf states are vital for Jordan's economy. As part of the Arab world and Middle East, Jordan also has a special interest in events in that sub-region. Eight percent of its area is desert and another portion arid mountains that contains no oil. Among its population of 4.9 million people, almost 40 percent of them under 15 years of age, Jordan requires an inflow of capital to provide jobs and services.
Full PDF Document, 7 pages, 48kB
Endnotes
Note *: Ziad Swaidan is an Assistant Professor of International Business and Mihai Nica is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management and Marketing at Jackson State University. Ziad Swaidan is an Assistant Professor of International Business and Mihai Nica is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management and Marketing at Jackson State University. Back