The big speeches at the United Nations get the headlines. But the real work of diplomacy happens in the corridors between them, and this week the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan offered a rare glimpse of exactly that. The court’s official Instagram shared a behind-the-scenes photograph of the Jordanian delegation at UN headquarters, captioned simply: between meetings at the United Nations.
The image shows what the caption promises: members of the delegation in mid-conversation, suits and briefing papers, the easy body language of people who have done this many times before. Among them is Crown Prince Hussein, listening intently as colleagues talk. It is the unglamorous, essential machinery of international diplomacy, and the court chose to share it.
The Work Between the Speeches
Every September, New York hosts the high-level week of the UN General Assembly, when kings, presidents, and prime ministers converge on Manhattan. The speeches in the General Assembly hall are the public face of the week. The bilateral meetings, the corridor conversations, the working sessions with senior officials: that is where positions shift and understandings are built.
Jordan has always punched above its weight in these settings. A medium-sized kingdom in a turbulent region, it has built its influence on credibility: consistent positions, reliable partnerships, and a monarch in King Abdullah II who is among the most experienced statesmen of his generation. The behind-the-scenes photo is a small window into how that influence is exercised, meeting by meeting, conversation by conversation.
The Crown Prince Steps Forward
The presence of Crown Prince Hussein in the delegation photo is worth noting. The heir to the Hashemite throne has been taking on a steadily growing portfolio of public duties, and international engagements are a central part of that apprenticeship. Learning diplomacy is not done from briefing books alone. It is done standing in rooms like this one, watching how experienced hands work.
Other young royals are on similar paths. Across Europe, the next generation of heirs is being eased into public life through carefully chosen engagements, from Luxembourg’s new Grand Duke settling into his reign to Sweden’s royals working alongside young craftspeople, as in the King’s recent workshop visit. The pattern is the same everywhere: the future learning from the present, in public, on the job.
Why Jordan Shows the Backstage
Most governments would never publish a photo like this. The instinct is to control the image, to show only the handshake and the flags. The Hashemite court’s instinct runs the other way, and it is worth asking why it works.
Part of the answer is confidence. A delegation caught between meetings, papers in hand, mid-discussion: this is a team that is not performing diplomacy but doing it. Sharing that signals seriousness. It tells Jordanians that their representatives are working, not posturing. And it tells the world that Jordan’s engagement at the UN is substantive, built on preparation rather than ceremony.
There is also a humanizing effect. The men and women in the photo are professionals at work, and the image invites the viewer into their working day. In an era when international institutions can feel remote, a candid photograph from inside the building does more for public understanding than a dozen press releases. It is the same instinct behind the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg’s community engagements: show the work, and people will respect it.
Diplomacy as a Family Business
For the Hashemites, diplomacy has always been something of a family business. King Abdullah II’s own apprenticeship in statecraft began long before his accession, and he has made a point of bringing the next generation along. The UN photo, with the Crown Prince embedded in the working delegation rather than posed apart from it, continues that tradition.
The court’s caption said it best, in five words and two languages: between meetings at the United Nations. No grand claims, no lofty rhetoric. Just the work, shared openly. In diplomacy, as in much else, that kind of honesty is its own form of strength.
Photo: @rhcjo
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