The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan

This book is the first comprehensive biography on Jordan’s King Abdullah. Drawing on interviews with over 100 individuals, including Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, The Most American King offers a thorough account of this key Arab leader. Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, charts Abdullah’s path to power from a Massachusetts prep school to a British military academy to the throne. This book examines how Abdullah has remained in power for over a quarter century, surrounded by wars and refugee crises. While leaders nearby were ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Abdullah survived the wave of discontent.The Most American King details Abdullah’s efforts to cement an alliance with Washington. Despite leading a small desert country, the Jordanian king was the first Arab leader to meet US Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. The kingdom has received billions in US assistance, and Abdullah’s intelligence services helped the CIA foil Al-Qaeda terror plots against American targets. Abdullah’s personal ties to the United States have strengthened this relationship. Abdullah trained with the US Army in Kentucky, appeared on a Star Trek episode, and interviewed with Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart.While the Hashemite ruler has frequently been lauded in the West, The Most American King discusses how some of Abdullah’s decisions provoked controversy inside the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah approved a $15 billion gas deal with Israel in 2014, but thousands of Jordanians protested the Hashemite Kingdom’s largest-ever deal with the Jewish state. Over a decade earlier, Abdullah agreed to host US troops in Jordan and provide Washington with overflight rights ahead of the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood denounced such military cooperation with the United States as it prepared to topple the government of its neighbor. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Jordanian politics.REVIEWS and WORDS OF PRAISEIn this outstanding new biography, Aaron Magid sheds important new light on one of the most vital leaders in the modern Middle East: Jordan‘s King Abdullah II. Meticulously researched and carefully explicated, this biography also serves as a crucial roadmap to the central role Jordan plays in the international relations of that crucial region and, especially, the quest for security and stability there. It’s an outstanding contribution to the important body of scholarship on the contemporary Middle East and will remain a definitive portrait of one of its most significant, albeit often underestimated, leaders and his crucially important count.--Hussein Ibish, PhD, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in WashingtonAaron Magid's portrait of King Abdullah II is a well informed account of the tumultuous difficulties he, the royal family, and Jordan have wrestled with since the death of his father King Hussein.--Wesley Egan, former US Ambassador to JordanAn authoritative account of King Abdullah’s journey to the throne, his Western upbringing, and shifting regional dynamics. Drawing on over a decade of reporting from Jordan, Aaron Magid offers a succinct recount of the country’s modern history at a time of unprecedented regional turbulence. A must-read if you are looking to understand today’s Middle East, with Jordan at the epicenter of its changes.--Joyce Karam, senior Al-Monitor news editor Read more