A Political-Economic History of Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate: Authoritarian State-Building and Fiscal Crisis

Popular policy accounts of Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate (GID) commonly detach it from the country's history, society, and political economy. By isolating and focusing on the GID's role as protector of the monarchy, one loses sight of other important effects of its historical evolution. This article explores the GID's origins in the late 1960s and 1970s and how it has evolved. It positions Jordan's security services as institutional and political- economic actors contributing to the decline of the Jordanian public sector and the emergence of a fiscal crisis.