Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion It’s time to return to globalization. But this time let’s do it right.

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April 27, 2020 at 3:52 p.m. EDT
President Trump and Jordan’s King Abdullah II hold a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington in April 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is king of Jordan.

I can’t remember the precise context, but I was recently taken aback when an aide mentioned I had become the longest-serving Arab leader. The sheer pace and density of events in the past 21 years — wars, terrorist attacks, regional conflicts, waves of refugees, financial crises — had caused the years to blur together.