Halfway!

Today is the exact halfway mark of my time in Jordan. Hard to believe it's been over a month. We've plowed through 4 1/2 chapters our Arabic textbook, so I assume we still have 4 1/2 left in front of us. For comparison, we got through about 7 1/2 chapters during all of last year at Harvard. So, if we knock off another 4 1/2 before leaving, Qasid will have more than surpassed its promise to squeeze an entire academic year of instruction into a summer.

Our midterm is Thursday - and Saturday marks four weeks until my flight home!

Meeting the PM

The Harvard Glee Club, in which I sing, arranged a series of exciting meetings for me today. HGC is traveling to the Middle East in winter 2011-2012, and one of their stops is Jordan. HGC leadership decided that, as long as I am in Jordan, I should do some of the legwork with regard to meeting alumni, scouting out venues, etc. So I threw on a suit and spent a little over an hour with Zaid Al-Rifai, the former Prime Minister of Jordan, and then had dinner with a US diplomat based in Amman.

The Al-Rifai meeting was quite an experience. I was told that he would be sending a car. What he didn't say is that the driver would be in a military uniform. The driver showed up at Qasid while I was still in class, and said he was looking for Marshall. Qasid administration pointed out the other Marshall, who was understandably terrified when a Jordanian soldier unexpectedly approached him and asked him to "please come with me." Luckily this was all cleared up, and I followed the driver to a very nice late-model Mercedes. Doors were opened for me, traffic cops saluted as we drove past. All in all, a very nice way to spend an afternoon.

The meeting itself was at Al-Rifai's home; we sat out in his marble courtyard, next to a beautiful fountain. I introduced myself, and after a short discussion of my experience in Amman, we dove into Glee Club details. Rifai is a Harvard alum, as is his son, the current Prime Minister. The man has considerable influence, unsurprisingly, and given his connections to Harvard, he is very eager to see the Glee Club travel to Jordan. He promised some very generous help with various aspects of the tour, which I reported back to HGC leadership. I may soon be dispatched to Egypt and the UAE to meet with our contacts there, though I sadly can't expect a similarly posh reception.

In the evening, I met with a Public Diplomacy officer stationed at the embassy here for advice on the logistics of bringing the groups here. He was full of information - venues, seating capacities, publicity issues, possible local groups to include in a joint concert, and the like. He also suggested a few of the restaurants I had to make sure not to miss while here for the summer. We also discussed his path in the US government and my interest in the field after graduation, though I didnt want to turn a Glee Club meeting into an informational job interview and so tried to keep that discussion short. He is beginning classes tomorrow at Qasid, so I may bump into him more often.

So two decently successful meetings in a single day - the luggage space I devoted to a suit and dress shoes is already worth it! The future likely holds a few more meetings as well... too bad I only brought one tie. While I wont be in the Glee Club when the actual tour comes around, I'll see if I can mooch off of leadership enough to get myself a free seat to tag along...

Nuclear Jordan

Interesting op-ed in today's New York Times. Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli official, argues that the US should allow Jordan to enrich its own uranium as part of its push to produce nuclear power.

Israel, despite having warmer relations with Jordan than with any Arab state, fears that in-country enrichment will give its Hashemite neighbor the expertise needed to produce a nuclear weapon. Never mind that Jordan has the right to enrich uranium under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (which Israel has not signed). Never mind that Jordan is closely allied with the US and other western countries. Ignore the fact that "the king has continuously affirmed his willingness for transparency on all matters relating to the production of nuclear power plants." Regardless of context, Arabs + uranium = unacceptable, in Israel's eyes. Mr. Beilin wisely argues against this paranoid view of Israel's security situation. 

On almost every issue, I agree with Mr. Beilin. Jordan has the right to enrich uranium, and given the large reserves recently discovered in the country (11th largest in the world), buying other people's uranium seems a foolish waste of money. More generally, if Israel isn't comfortable with nuclear power in Jordan, of all places, then my hopes are pretty dim for any meaningful Israeli cooperation with its Arab neighbors. Israel should support steps (like reliable electricity) that will stabilize its moderate, peaceful, pro-western neighbor. 

There is one detail Mr. Beilin omits, and this is where America's position becomes complicated. The US recently completed an important nuclear deal with the UAE, giving Abu Dhabi civilian nuclear technology in return for a waiving of its right to enrich uranium domestically. Israel would like to see Jordan also waive this right, which Jordan understandably wants to retain. However, if America signs on a deal that gives Jordan the technology while allowing it to retain the right to enrich, it could sink the UAE deal. From the June 12 Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration views the U.A.E. deal as a model for its nonproliferation drive. American experts say it would be virtually impossible for the Emirates or any other nation to develop atomic weapons without the ability to produce highly enriched uranium at home. 

The White House has good reason to stick to its guns in its talks with Jordan: the U.A.E., in its agreement with the U.S., won the right to negotiate a new deal if another Mideast country concludes a nuclear pact with the U.S. on more favorable terms (emphasis added).

Here's America's dilemma. If we force Jordan to renounce its right to domestic enrichment, we anger a strong ally and possibly force it to get its technology from other nuclear powers (like Russia, China, or Pakistan). If the US does the right thing and gives Jordan nuclear technology without forcing it to waive its right, the UAE deal gets scrapped. The deal is an important part of the framework we are constructing in the Gulf now to isolate Iran and its rogue nuclear program, and its collapse would be a serious blow to that effort. The deal is also essential to the UAE's energy security. 

America has a good reason to seek Jordanian renunciation of enrichment - but it has nothing to do with Israeli security. If we continue to ask Jordan to waive its treaty-given rights, make sure the request is framed as an essential step to save the important UAE nuclear agreement. If our request for renunciation is seen as "the result of Israeli pressure," as Beilin suggests, we've done something wrong; it's about honoring our agreements elsewhere and continuing to isolate Iran.