“What I find a bit perplexing, and I have some ideas as why this is happening, but why Biden and his top officials continue, not just during the campaign, but now that they’ve been in office for 10 months or so, they continue to repeat this rhetoric about putting human rights and the support for democratic values at the quote unquote, as you said, “center” of U.S. foreign policy. It is a bit surreal, at least in the region that I study the Middle East and North Africa, because nowhere in this region is the U.S. government putting human rights at the center of its relations with any of these countries. And if that were ever to happen, we would see a completely different policy. We’d see a dramatic reduction or zeroing out in arms sales and military and security aid. We’d see a significant boost in development assistance. We’d see the US government engaging much more with non governmental actors, with activists and community leaders, people in the region who are not part of these oppressive regimes; we’d see a totally different policy. It is sort of notable that the administration keeps talking about this. And I’ve been trying to figure out why they keep using this rhetoric, when you know, these are very, very smart people who Biden has selected for these key positions; national security adviser, Secretary of State, etc. They know that human rights are not at the center of US policy toward the Middle East in any country. So I think that it has something to do with kind of trying to create a narrative around what they want the US brand to be seen as across the globe, in the world. It’s not so much of a message, I think, to the authoritarian leaders in this region who maybe were, some of them were a bit apprehensive when Biden was elected, that he might be a lot tougher than Trump. And he certainly has pushed on these issues more than Trump has. But that’s such a low bar. I think that Biden and his team really want to create this narrative, push out this message of the US brand, globally, that in a way to not only distinguish Biden from Trump, but also to distinguish the United States from China.”

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“Any hint of instability should worry Jordan’s Western allies, foremost the United States, who value the kingdom for its help in the fight against Islamic extremists, its security ties with Israel and its willingness to host refugees.

But the focus of the Biden administration has shifted to the Indo-Pacific, with Middle East policy in maintenance mode and the approach to Jordan seemingly on autopilot, said Seth Binder of the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy group….

In a report circulated among Washington decision-makers in September, Binder’s group called for more stringent conditions to be attached to direct cash transfers, and to eventually phase them out. Aid should be leveraged in a push for economic and political reforms, it said.

‘A cash transfer to the government is a privilege that should be reserved for U.S. partners committed to democracy and human rights and not known for rampant corruption,’ the report said.

The State Department said in a response that aid to Jordan is in the direct national security interest of the U.S., describing the kingdom as an ‘invaluable ally.’ It said the U.S. carefully monitors its aid programs to Jordan and that the U.S. routinely engages the Jordanian government on a wide range of issues, including human rights.”

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“What I find a bit perplexing, and I have some ideas as why this is happening, but why Biden and his top officials continue, not just during the campaign, but now that they’ve been in office for 10 months or so, they continue to repeat this rhetoric about putting human rights and the support for democratic values at the quote unquote, as you said, “center” of U.S. foreign policy. It is a bit surreal, at least in the region that I study the Middle East and North Africa, because nowhere in this region is the U.S. government putting human rights at the center of its relations with any of these countries. And if that were ever to happen, we would see a completely different policy. We’d see a dramatic reduction or zeroing out in arms sales and military and security aid. We’d see a significant boost in development assistance. We’d see the US government engaging much more with non governmental actors, with activists and community leaders, people in the region who are not part of these oppressive regimes; we’d see a totally different policy. It is sort of notable that the administration keeps talking about this. And I’ve been trying to figure out why they keep using this rhetoric, when you know, these are very, very smart people who Biden has selected for these key positions; national security adviser, Secretary of State, etc. They know that human rights are not at the center of US policy toward the Middle East in any country. So I think that it has something to do with kind of trying to create a narrative around what they want the US brand to be seen as across the globe, in the world. It’s not so much of a message, I think, to the authoritarian leaders in this region who maybe were, some of them were a bit apprehensive when Biden was elected, that he might be a lot tougher than Trump. And he certainly has pushed on these issues more than Trump has. But that’s such a low bar. I think that Biden and his team really want to create this narrative, push out this message of the US brand, globally, that in a way to not only distinguish Biden from Trump, but also to distinguish the United States from China.”

The post Advocacy Director Seth Binder Featured in Associated Press appeared first on The Institute for Middle East Peace.

“What I find a bit perplexing, and I have some ideas as why this is happening, but why Biden and his top officials continue, not just during the campaign, but now that they’ve been in office for 10 months or so, they continue to repeat this rhetoric about putting human rights and the support for democratic values at the quote unquote, as you said, “center” of U.S. foreign policy. It is a bit surreal, at least in the region that I study the Middle East and North Africa, because nowhere in this region is the U.S. government putting human rights at the center of its relations with any of these countries. And if that were ever to happen, we would see a completely different policy. We’d see a dramatic reduction or zeroing out in arms sales and military and security aid. We’d see a significant boost in development assistance. We’d see the US government engaging much more with non governmental actors, with activists and community leaders, people in the region who are not part of these oppressive regimes; we’d see a totally different policy. It is sort of notable that the administration keeps talking about this. And I’ve been trying to figure out why they keep using this rhetoric, when you know, these are very, very smart people who Biden has selected for these key positions; national security adviser, Secretary of State, etc. They know that human rights are not at the center of US policy toward the Middle East in any country. So I think that it has something to do with kind of trying to create a narrative around what they want the US brand to be seen as across the globe, in the world. It’s not so much of a message, I think, to the authoritarian leaders in this region who maybe were, some of them were a bit apprehensive when Biden was elected, that he might be a lot tougher than Trump. And he certainly has pushed on these issues more than Trump has. But that’s such a low bar. I think that Biden and his team really want to create this narrative, push out this message of the US brand, globally, that in a way to not only distinguish Biden from Trump, but also to distinguish the United States from China.”

The post Advocacy Director Seth Binder Featured in Associated Press appeared first on The Institute for Middle East Peace.