E-government has become a popular focus of government efforts in many developed countries and, more recently, in several developing countries. Jordan is one such developing country that has embarked on an e-government initiative (the programme was launched in the year 2000, and is expected to take several years to complete). Existing empirical research on e-government has been undertaken principally within western developed countries. Of those studies that have focused on e-government implementation within developing countries, a few have identified one or more factors that play a part in the progress or otherwise of an e-government capability. Whilst useful as a combined list of possible factors to bear in mind, these studies have been based on “one-off” snapshot analyses of the situations found within the countries being studied. There is no indication as to whether the existence factors vary over time, and why this occurs. The aim of this research was to investigate the dynamic nature of, and interrelationships between, the factors that influence e-government implementation in Jordan over time. By conducting 42 semi-structured interviews with major stakeholders in Jordan including employees of the public and private sectors as well as ordinary citizens, qualitative data was collected over three periods of empirical work. By analysing the data based upon Strauss and Corbin’s variant of the grounded theory method, the research aim has been achieved. The findings of this research indicate that the factors that affect e-government implementation in Jordan differ in terms of their levels of dynamism: some persisted over three years of this longitudinal research while others emerged during the second and third cycle of the empirical work. Furthermore, while there are some factors that are similar to those that were already mentioned in the previous literature, four new factors have emerged from this research, these being: Wasta, war in Iraq, Parliament’s priorities, and government priorities. The factors that were founded from this research, and their dynamic nature, cumulated into a model based on the Jordanian context. This model said an important message to both researchers and policy makers working in the field of e-government: the factors of influence should never be regarded as being static or complete. The value of this research lies in the fact that it is one of only a handful of research that focus on issues affecting e-government implementation specifically in Jordan. Furthermore, it is unique in that it views the factors operating in this environment from a dynamic rather than a static perspective.

e-Government services are typically developed by internal service providers, often neglecting the service end user. Subsequent delivery of services can be jeopardised without due consideration of the service user, lacking in consideration of their needs and expectations in the design process. However, the service provider when designing e-services for varied users, find it is hard to meet the prospective users’ expectations and needs and involve them in an iterative design processes. To address this issue; a Co-design approach has been applied and focuses on Jordanian Government to Citizens (G2C) e-services. Co-design tools/methods maximize opportunities and provide new possibilities for communicating and collaborating with varied and diverse users. The main aim of this research is to improve the quality and efficiency of G2C e-services by adopting the Co-design approach including its tools/methods to support user participation throughout design process, and how these tools/methods pretend the features of user participation. A novel G2C e-Service Co-Design Framework (G2C-SCOF) is constructed with mechanisms for understanding the stakeholders’ requirements, and granting them an active role throughout design process of G2C e-service design. A wiki-based Co-design prototype (WCP) is developed and introduced as a response to and evaluation of the developed G2C-SCOF. This research also presents results from the case study in Jordan and used to evaluate WCP effectiveness regarding users’ participation role(s) throughout the Co-design process based on standard service design phases. Interestingly, involvement throughout design process as such can be an enriching experience for the users. Offering a channel to uncover their own creativity and provide enjoyment for them as they see their contributions evolve into a viable service. A robust method for uncovering domain concepts is derived that bridges the requirements’ gap between service provider and service user within a G2C e-service design context. A first iteration evaluates the adoption and acceptance of Jordan Government Portal (JGP) based on a model titled Methodology for e-Government Service Adoption and Acceptance Measurement (MEGA-M). MEGA-M is then used to design a survey and subsequently investigate how citizens perceive the quality of the JGP. RepGrid methodology with semi-structured interviews are deployed in the second iteration – with 24 participants from diverse backgrounds contributing to a synthesised cognitive model titled Stakeholder’s requirements map for G2C Service Design’ (SRM-G2C). Finally, a prototype WCP is developed as the third iteration for evaluation purposes. WCP is a platform for facilitating the sharing and expression of ideas and/or assumptions used to improve the effectiveness of G2C e-service design. The conclusions and contributions drawn from this research are expected to benefit researchers, providing insights for future research in the field of e-Government service design, and practitioners, providing a systematic framework for supporting the collaboration among stakeholders in designing G2C e-services.

This study argues that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan survived the years between the signing of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 and the outbreak of the June 1967 war due primarily to the cohesion of its National Security Establishment (NSE), a ruling coalition of security and foreign policy professionals from the monarchy, the political elite, and the military. By examining the national security policymaking process in Jordan between 1955 and 1967, this study shows that NSE members often disagreed over the means of protecting Jordanian national security, but agreed on the ultimate end of security policy: the preservation of the Hashemite monarchy and the protection of the territorial integrity of Jordan. This thesis examines in detail the foreign and domestic challenges to Jordanian national security during the kingdom's most turbulent period. The thesis makes extensive use of primary sources from the British, American, and Jordanian archives, Arabic and English language memoirs, and interviews with surviving Jordanian decisionmakers. In addition, the study builds on the work of previous scholars by making use of the published literature on Jordan. The first three chapters are organised thematically, while the remaining chapters are organised chronologically.