Tribal Statecraft and Freedom of Expression in Jordan

In this research paper, I investigate the connection between the policies regarding freedom of speech and expression promulgated by the government of Jordan in the decade following the Arab Spring and Jordan’s tribal Bedouin heritage, with a focus on how traditional Bedouin values and attitudes regarding the nature and purpose of public spaces influence modern state policies regarding freedom of expression. In the investigation of this subject, I surveyed a diverse catalog of research covering politics and issues of freedom of expression in Jordan in the 2010s as well as the political and social values of tribal Arab culture in general, and further guided the general direction of this survey using my experience of living in Jordan over two summers. I found that tribalism, specifically of the traditional Bedouin model, is deeply ingrained into Jordanian political culture, and that the Jordanian government practices a long-standing tradition of statecraft in which governance is practiced as tribal mediation and management. The research that I accessed suggests that the traditional Arab Bedouin social system of tribalism promulgates specific views and attitudes regarding issues of public space, in-group unity, social harmony, and individual rights, and that these attitudes have in turn influenced the day-to-day expression of Islam and its nominal values in Arab regions such as Jordan. Finally, I synthesize these findings into a theory which details how the desert environment of Arabia influenced traditional Bedouin attitudes regarding issues of in-group unity and public space, and how these deeply-rooted values have influenced the strongly Bedouin-influenced Jordanian government’s approach to issues of freedom of expression in the decade following the Arab Spring. A survey of several high-profile incidents of censorship by the Jordanian government following the Arab Spring is given to support these conclusions, and illustrate how they fit into my model of censorship in Jordan being influenced and guided by a longstanding regional tradition of tribal statecraft