The Peculiar Case of the Zone Project - Jordan News

Jordan News

19-06-2025

The zone project is not a real estate development project of a suspicious nature, the subject matter is of a more Intricate form whereby international agencies, regional organizations and other stakeholders are involved. The mysterious dimension is probably the only commonality that fits the two prescribed cases. اضافة اعلان Not to confuse the reader, the zone project mentioned here refers to the Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone project, established via EU decision CFSP 2019/938 and managed by the United Nations. Technically speaking, the zone project represented a noble initiative and a final best chance which was totally wasted. The formal announcement of this initiative dates back to October 2019, its launch was widely seen as a promising start for a long awaited effort, an effort that is highly needed to the Middle East with a positive impact far reaching to the globe. This long awaited initiative was the first breakthrough in Middle East's nuclear non-proliferation efforts since 2010 and probably represented the last window of opportunity. Following its glamourous opening in New York, the atmosphere was positive, hopes were high and optimism prevailed that this project would bring positive change and significant impact. There was no doubt that the project was heading towards success. Indeed, ingredients of success were all there, the zone project had generous funding from EU (EEAS) and attained the prestigious umbrella of UNIDIR (a UN affiliated institution); There was no idea that things could possibly go wrong. Shockingly, the short and long-term performance of the project was below expectations, the project had minimal impact, it did not leave a notable fingerprint and was unable to bring important stakeholders into its discussion platforms. The initial phase of this multi-million Euro project lasted for three years with significant outcomes, says project organizers. A closer look at UNIDIR zone project activities reveals limited results and marginal gains. Despite the fact that this project reflected an EU political position to reinvigorate efforts on the zone; Yet project leadership considered this as an academic venture and focused on publishing papers and issuing reports. As if 50 year of continuous publications on the zone were insufficient and irrelevant. The undeniable fact is that the academic impact of project's published papers went unnoticed, a failed attempt to contribute to literature without a meaningful value. The project had the chance of bringing change and instigating a transformational process, a shift from theory into practice, sadly this did not happen. To play safe, project administration opted for sticking to theory and limiting any practical engagement that could change the status quo. The Middle East WMD-Free Zone team celebrated three important products, including the so-called TIMELINE. Academically speaking, the TIMELINE is a non-inclusive tool. A closer look at the TIMELINE reveals that it sets a clear example of bias and political alignment as it covers and attributes activities of Israel's civil society while overlooking similar activities within the Arab side. Repeated calls to project management team to rectify these errors were denied and never accepted. This fortifies the conclusion that the project leadership took an isolationist stance and made sure that the project was unconnected to reality, to grass roots and above all to civil society. Sadly, the project ability of attracting large-scale multi-disciplinary audience representing all backgrounds did not happen. Most importantly, there is no prove that the project was able to reach out and connect to important players, including state parties which traditionally blocked consensus over the zone. The pitfalls of this project are countless, there is clear evidence that investing such large sums of money could have been utilized in a better fashion and would have definitely yielded much better results. The Nuclear Forum effort in documenting project drawbacks and setbacks will be presented systematically in forthcoming articles.