Marwan Muasher
{{Short description|Jordanian diplomat and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Marwan Jameel Essa al-Muasher
|image = marwan muasher.jpg
|imagesize = 250px
|office = Deputy Prime Minister
|term_start = 3 July 2005
|term_end = 24 November 2005
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|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1956}}
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Marwan al-Muasher ({{langx|ar|مروان المعشر}}) (born 1956) is a former Jordanian diplomat and politician who was Jordan's foreign minister from 2002 to 2004 and its deputy prime minister during 2004 and 2005. He currently serves as vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research on the Middle East. He was Jordan's first ambassador to Israel and former ambassador to the United States.{{cite web|title=Marwan Muasher|url=http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=563|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328234739/http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=563|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 March 2013|website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|accessdate=17 July 2014}}Noam Chomsky, [http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/21/global_empire_united_states_iraq_noam_chomsky "Is the world too big to fail?"], Salon.com, 21 April 2011.
Education and early career
Muasher attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1977, a Master of Science degree in computer engineering in 1978, and a PhD, also in computer engineering, in 1981.{{cite web|title=Marwan Jamil Al Muasher|url=http://www.weforum.org/contributors/marwan-jamil-al-muasher|website=World Economic Forum|accessdate=17 July 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726165829/http://www.weforum.org/contributors/marwan-jamil-al-muasher|archivedate=26 July 2014}}
Muasher began his career working as a journalist for the Jordan Times, the only Jordanian newspaper in the English language. He then entered government service, working in communications{{cite web|title=Marwan Muasher, the Optimist Reformer|url=https://chronicle.fanack.com/jordan/faces/marwan-muasher-optimist-reformer/|website=Fanack.com|accessdate=9 August 2016|archive-date=14 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714171022/https://chronicle.fanack.com/jordan/faces/marwan-muasher-optimist-reformer/|url-status=dead}} in the Ministry of Planning, at the prime minister's office as press adviser, and as director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Career
=Jordanian politics=
In 1995, following the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Muasher became Jordan's first ambassador to Israel. Then, in 1996, he became minister of information and the government spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington, D.C., again as ambassador to the United States, and helped negotiate the Jordan–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the first free-trade agreement the United States signed with an Arab country.
He returned to Jordan in January 2002 to serve as foreign minister, where he played a central role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East roadmap. He served until October 2004, when he gained the post of deputy prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle under former Prime Minister Adnan Badran that sought to continue reform and shrink the bureaucracy. He served as the deputy prime minister until November 2005. In 2005 he developed the National Agenda, a long-term political, economic and social reform plan for Jordan. The making up of the plan involved 450 Jordanian stakeholders and experts giving solutions and deadlines to implement them. The National Agenda was never actually realized because, according to Muasher, it was thwarted by a group of political elites and bureaucrats, eager to keep a rentier-based state system, rather than one based on merit.{{cite web|last1=Fanack|title=Marwan Muasher, the Optimist Reformer|url=https://chronicle.fanack.com/jordan/faces/marwan-muasher-optimist-reformer/|website=Fanack.com|accessdate=14 July 2015|archive-date=14 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714171022/https://chronicle.fanack.com/jordan/faces/marwan-muasher-optimist-reformer/|url-status=dead}} According to Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, al-Muasher, a Christian, was dropped from the post to please the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood.{{cite web | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sultan-sooud-alqassemi/shameful-plight-of-the-mi_b_203319.html | title=Shameful Plight of the Middle East's Christians | work=Huffington Post| date=14 June 2009 | accessdate=26 October 2014 | author=Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi| author-link=Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi }}
From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Jordanian Senate.
=International policy making=
From March 2007 to 2010, he served as senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank.{{cite news|title=Marwan Muasher Appointed As Senior Vice President, External Affairs; Press Release No:2007/277/EXT|url=http://go.worldbank.org/PUQ4W245Z0|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140718031408/http://go.worldbank.org/PUQ4W245Z0|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 July 2014|work=World Bank|date=19 March 2007}}
He currently serves as vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research on the Middle East from Washington, D.C., and Beirut, Lebanon. In 2011 Muasher took seat in the advisory council of The Hague Institute for Global Justice.{{cite web|title=Advisory Council|url=http://thehagueinstituteforglobaljustice.org/index.php?page=About_us-People-Advisory_Council&pid=127|website=The Hague Institute for Global Justice|accessdate=17 July 2014}}
Publications
He is the author of two books:
- {{cite book|title=The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation|date=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|isbn=978-0-300-12300-5|pages=336|url=https://archive.org/details/arabcenterpromis0000muas|url-access=registration}}
- {{cite book|title=The Second Arab Awakening: And the Battle for Pluralism|date=2014|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|isbn=978-0-300-18639-0|pages=232|url=https://archive.org/details/secondarabawaken0000muas|url-access=registration}}
Awards
Recipient of awards, including Jordanian Independence Medal and the Order of the Star of Jordan.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://twitter.com/MarwanMuasher Official Twitter account]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140728054651/http://www.jordan-business.net/politics/candid-marwan-muasher October 2013 interview] with Jordan Business Magazine
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140726041412/http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/03/19/marwan-muasher-in-conversation-with-thomas-l.-friedman/h2mg March 19, 2014 discussion] with Thomas L. Friedman at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
- {{C-SPAN|44035}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muasher, Marwan}}
Category:Purdue University College of Engineering alumni
Category:Academic staff of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Category:Members of the Senate of Jordan
Category:Ambassadors of Jordan to Israel
Category:Ambassadors of Jordan to the United States
Category:20th-century diplomats
Category:Information ministers of Jordan
Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Jordan
Category:Deputy prime ministers of Jordan
Category:Prime ministry affairs ministers of Jordan
Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Jordan
Category:Carnegie Endowment for International Peace