In Jordan, the main regime, as a successful political survival strategy, while skillfully forming a tight pro-regime political coalition all along, has kept an even firmer grip on the political opposition. The political opposition in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood, and its political wing the Islamic Action Front (IAF) being the leading front, sometimes boycotted the elections as a response to or compromised with the regime. This latter approach has also been embraced by the parties which emerged out of the MB, including the National Congress Party and the Muslim Brotherhood Association; however, another splinter party, the Partnership and Rescue Party (PRP) criticized them for their incompetence in acting as a true opposition. This is the juncture this paper problematizes—the IAF seems to have lost its ability to act as the main opposition, and the newly emerged PRP prospectively stands out as the leading candidate to replace it. This paper examines the transformation of the political oppositional block in Jordan and elaborates on its consequences for the MB and the regime–opposition relations. In relation to this, in the conceptual level, the paper also reflects on the relevance of this transformation to the post-Islamism debate: in this instance, the PRP denouncing the political Islamic ideology and positioning itself in the center of the political spectrum while maintaining the claim that it has taken over the main opposition role/legacy of the MB evoke a post-Islamist tendency. The argumentation in the article is built on primary sources, including interviews with the opposition leaders and prominent opposition members.

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Oman, with its geographical location and ancient tradition, is a country that has succeeded in being a balancing factor, despite its distance from the central tensions of the Middle East and its ineffective appearance in regional politics. Especially during the 50-year reign of Sultan Qaboos that began in 1970, Oman was able to establish strategic relations with regional and global actors and adopted an exceptional foreign policy understanding in the Middle East during the Cold War period. After the death of Sultan Qaboos, Haitham bin Tariq took over the rule of the country as the new sultan of Oman. Under the new Sultan’s power, a pragmatic status quo approach has become the main pillar in the country’s foreign relations, as the traditional foreign policy understanding has been built on independence and moderation at a level that matches Oman’s will and capacity. This study presents a perspective on Oman’s foreign policy approach of Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman, based on the analysis of traditional foreign policy framework and practices developed during the reign of Sultan Qaboos who was the architect of the country’s international relations. In this regard, this article examines in chronological order the continuities and ruptures of Omani foreign policy, which has been able to pursue effective policies, despite its low profile in the Middle East, by especially the mission it has assumed in the Gulf since Sultan Qaboos assumed power in 1970. The article also discusses the successful policies of Sultan Qaboos to remain moderate under all conditions and preserve the status quo in the Gulf. The study discusses in detail the exceptional case of Oman in the region using process tracing.