7 - Imperial Coercion, Liberal Intervention and the Rise of Populist Politics

Summary

Besides summarising the key findings of the book, this final chapter also discusses the current crisis of liberal politics and ‘democracy promotion’. Against the backdrop of the global rise of populist politics, it questions whether clear lines of separation can be drawn between imperial coercion, liberal intervention and growing populism. Ultimately, it suggests that just as imperial coercion and ‘democracy promotion’ are part of the same politics of control and domination, liberal interventionism and the various forms of structural violence associated with it have also played a major role in strengthening precisely those populist dynamics that now put the ‘democracy promotion’ project under increasing pressure. The chapter also briefly reflects upon the most recent anti-regime protests in Jordan, which were led at least initially by what is perhaps the only major established political institution in Jordan to have remained immune from external assistance, so far, Jordan’s professional associations. Finally, the chapter concludes that even though US and European policy in Jordan comes under the cloak of a universally applicable morality that claims the surmounting of authoritarianism as its objective, its effect is not significantly different from traditional modes of imperial support for authoritarian regimes.