While much has been made of how the war against Islamic State gives Iran a chance to increase its influence across the Middle East, another country has already parlayed the violence into tangible gains: Jordan.
Just a decade ago, the tiny, oil-poor Hashemite kingdom had all but slipped off the West's radar, no longer needed as a forward bulwark against Saddam Hussein. Today, Jordan is a pivotal member of the anti-jihadist coalition, with a vibrant economy and a military being armed to teeth by the U.S. and regional allies.
Consider this: In 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, the U.S. gave Jordan $950 million in economic assistance and $612 million in military aid. By 2011, those figures were down to $362 million and $300 million. Jordan's other benefactors followed suit: Overall aid plummeted from nearly 13 percent of gross national income in 2003 to under 4 percent from 2006 through 2011.