A daily glance at the news confirms this: No region on earth is so marked by smouldering or open conflicts as the Middle East. Syria is marked by civil war: Alawites face Sunnis, Arabs against Kurds, Muslims against Christians and Yazidis, Assad supporters against opposition members. Things are no better in Iraq. After the war against Iran and the military conflicts with the USA, as well as a terrible civil war that has divided the country denominationally into Shiites and Sunnis and ethnically into Arabs and Kurds, Iraq is once again in turmoil: demonstrations have been going on for weeks in Baghdad and Basra.

In Turkey, the conflict with the Kurds has not been resolved. Israel has insecure borders and has not found reconciliation with the Palestinians. Sunni Saudi Arabia fears its Shiite minority in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Yemen. Iran is struggling with its own internal conflicts, while at the same time interfering in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, for example by supporting Hezbollah and the Al-Quds Brigades. And Egypt? The country on the Nile has had a curious roller-coaster ride of revolution and counter-revolution and is still struggling with poverty, overpopulation and Islamist fundamentalism. The Copts do not feel safe on the Nile.

And then there is Jordan. What about this small country between Israel, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq?

Jordan: Island of calm in a sea of conflict

When Jordan became independent in 1946, the small Hashemite Kingdom had only about half a million inhabitants. Today there are around 10 million! Many of them have a migration background. In the course of the Israeli-Arab war of 1948, many Palestinians came to Jordan from what is now Israel. Most of them have integrated well and are now considered Jordanians. In 1967, more Palestinians came. About half of all Jordanians have Palestinian roots. In addition, there are 1.8 million Palestinians who do not yet have Jordanian passports.

During the Gulf Wars and the Iraq War, Jordan was always on the side of Iraq, but always sought a diplomatic balance with the USA and Israel. In each case, this was a risky game that the then King Hussein played brilliantly to manoeuvre his country through the dangerous period. As a result, more than a million Iraqis fled to Jordan to find safety.

The Syrian war has also affected Jordan: Around 1.2 million Syrians have fled across the border to Jordan. Among them are hundreds of thousands of Christians and ethnic minorities. 150,000 Assyrian Christians alone have found refuge in Jordan. There are also tens of thousands of Kurds. Many refugees and migrants have also been received from Yemen and Sudan.

Finally, there are the guest workers: around half a million legal and more than a million illegal guest workers from other Arab countries, mainly Palestine and Egypt, work in Jordan.

In total, there are 10 million inhabitants in Jordan, of whom only a minority are autochthonous Jordanians. Despite this diversity, there are no conflicts in Jordan as we know them from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria or Yemen. Religious minorities also feel safe. In Amman, you can see a multitude of churches of all Christian denominations among the mosques.

Jordan has become an Arab model state

As much as the diversity looks like multiculturalism at first glance, the impression is deceptive. The Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Egyptians who live in Jordan are in the vast majority Arabs (i.e. Arabic-speaking) and Sunni Muslims. There are hardly any Shiites and Alawites. Therefore, the major sectarian divide that plagues Syria, Iraq and Lebanon does not exist.

As for the Palestinians, they and the indigenous Jordanians are linguistically, historically and ethnically almost one and the same people, separated only geographically by the Jordan River. After all, the West Bank also belonged to Jordan between 1948 and 1967, so there is a large overlap here. Many Jordanians have relatives in Palestine (i.e. geographically Israel, Gaza or West Bank) and vice versa.

So in this respect, Jordan is relatively homogeneous despite its diversity and large number of migrants: As Sunni Arabs, the majority can quickly identify with Jordanian citizenship. It's a bit like Bavarians, Swiss, Baden-Württembergers and Austrians moving closer together. There are only limited cultural differences.

Prosperity without oil

Jordan is not rich. It does not have large oil deposits like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) or Iraq. Jordan has few resources, apart from the phosphate deposits at the Dead Sea. Agriculture is limited to the northwest of the country, the Levantine part. The eastern and south-eastern parts of the country are desert and steppe. Only camel and goat breeding thrives here.

And yet Jordan is not poor. The Jordanian dinar is a strong currency. The average standard of living of Jordanians is higher than in Egypt or Syria. The streets in Amman are less chaotic than in Cairo. There are refugee ghettos, but no slums like in the suburbs of Cairo or Alexandria. Many Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Egyptians like to come to Jordan as guest workers.

The most important sources of income are tourism and trade. Jordan's capital Amman has become a thriving commercial metropolis. Numerous trade routes meet here.

Popular king

Today, King Abdullah II reigns. He is very popular. The government is democratically elected. So it is a constitutional monarchy. But the king often intervenes like a kind of tribune of the people, dissolving the government if necessary and calling for new elections to accommodate the will of the people if they are dissatisfied with the government.

Even if no Western standards prevail with regard to human rights and freedom of the press, Jordan is much more open and democratic than almost all other Arab states in the region and the Arabian Peninsula.

Jordan has managed to maintain the monarchy as a pillar of society and yet introduce democratic structures. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (Kuwait, Bahrain, United Emirates, Qatar) are still very far from this. There, the monarchs rule almost absolutely.

Peace with Israel, international cooperation

After two wars (1948 and 1967), Jordan has step by step sought and found peace and reconciliation with Israel. In 1994, the two signed a peace treaty. This was a huge step, considering that the majority of the Jordanian population has Palestinian roots.

Jordan has good economic and diplomatic relations with the USA, Great Britain and also Germany. It almost seems as if the small kingdom gets along well with almost everyone.

The number of terrorist attacks is very low. Jordan is not one hundred percent safe. But compared to Syria or Iraq, the danger of becoming a victim of an attack is negligible.

What can be learned from this?

Jordan is certainly not a perfect country. But you can call the small kingdom a model for the Arab world. It succeeds where other countries fail: prosperity without oil, peace despite large numbers of migrants. In Jordan, different Arab (sub-)ethnic groups are being welded together into a new Jordanian-Arab nation. It is to be hoped that this will continue so successfully and that peace will be preserved. Otherwise the next wave of refugees will come.