Jordan remained committed to counterterrorism and stopping and countering violent extremism. There were no thriving terrorist attacks in Jordan. However, the country faced a constant threat from terrorist groups. Jordan’s geographical location raises the possibility of a terrorist attack planned in Syria or Iraq against tourist and government sites. Jordanian security forces thwarted plots and arrested many suspected terrorists.
Fighting 21st-century terrorism is a difficult task that requires the full and active collaboration of both civilian and military institutions. On 8-12 January 2023, NATO trained the Jordan Armed Forces to further the growth of a whole-of-government approach to counter-terrorism. Jordan continued to strengthen its border defences and surveillance capabilities in comeback to terrorist and criminal threats stemming from its 230-mile border with Syria and the 112-mile border with Iraq.
Thirty participants from the Jordan Armed Forces and the Jordan Military Center for Counter Terrorism and Extremism took part in this first-ever NATO train-the-trainer Counter-Terrorism programme. Training was kept at the Center itself, as the primary body liable for reinforcing the whole-of-government counter-terrorism strategy. This civilian-military programme was developed to Jordan’s priorities under the framework of NATO’s Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative, which the government has been a beneficiary of since 2014.
It included issues such as current and emerging terrorist challenges; the usefulness of technologies in terrorism; terrorist tactics and strategies; terrorist strategies in cyberspace, and women, peace and security in a terrorist context. Jordanian authorities remained alert in tracking and countering terrorist actions and preventing attacks that target civilians and security forces.
In his opening address, Colonel Amjad Al-Hrout, Commander of Jordan MCCTE, emphasised that the “work of the militaries in the fight against terrorism is important, but it is insufficient to sustainably defeat this threat.” “Civilian-military practices like the NATO Train-the-Trainer programme are therefore crucial to develop a more comprehensive strategy to counter-terrorism and enhance our societal resilience” he added.
Content drawn from the NATO Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum, which has been designed by a multinational team of 110 experts pulled from across the world, provides high-level expertise on modern terrorist challenges and enables effective tools for developing Counter-Terrorism plans in NATO partner countries and beyond.
The programme also strives to reinforce in-country training capacity. It is the first phase towards the conduct of joint training, by NATO and the Jordan Armed Forces, to governments from the broader Middle East and North Africa region. The event also encouraged expertise and experience sharing between NATO and the Jordan Armed Forces, ultimately donating to a safer and more resilient environment for counter-terrorism.
At the opening of the lecture on 8 January, Gabriele Cascone, Head of the Counter Terrorism Section at NATO Headquarters, praised Jordan for “bringing together the international society in the fight against Terrorism and being a trailblazer in the partnership with NATO in counter-terrorism”. NATO’s DCB Initiative was established in September 2014 at the NATO Summit in Wales. It allows partners to improve their defence and related security capabilities, as well as their resilience, thereby contributing to the security of the Alliance.
