Since the British mandate, Jordan has been linked to nearly every major violent conflict in the region. From the 1948 War to civil war in Lebanon and through to today’s regional conflicts, the effects on Jordan’s socio-political and socio-economic development have been profound. This paper analyzes Jordan’s relationship to its longest war, the case of Iraq beginning in the 1980s. The two countries share historical and social linkages in which war has played a large role. The character of violent conflict in Iraq has shifted from multiple instances of inter-state conflict in the 1980s and 1990s to current bouts of occupation and sub-state conflict. How have changing patterns of violent conflict in Iraq impacted Jordan? Or more specifically, how has Jordan become embedded in the enduring violence? The paper pursues this issue in three political economy areas: trade relations, fiscal politics, and labor. The argument is that the political-economics of this war have contributed to Hashemite political survival at the cost of Jordan’s socio-economic underdevelopment. In terms of theory, this paper contributes to a wider scholarly literature focused on war economies. Much of the debate has revolved around whether violence endures because of economic reasons (making money and getting ahead) or non-economic reasons (socio-ethnic diversity). Less attention has been devoted to the effects of war economies; how they become regionalized and embedded in neighboring societies and states. Moreover, the great majority of case studies do not address Arab countries and when they do appear it is often within quantitative data sets. Consequently, this paper constitutes an effort to address, systematically, the evolution of a regional war economy binding Iraq and Jordan in consequential ways. Jordan’s trade relations with war-time Iraq served crucial constituencies for the Hashemites during times of social instability. Jordan’s ability to manage high levels of debt and fiscal weakness depended upon its economic links to Iraq, particularly regarding energy. An important implication of these arrangements has been a weakening of labor security within segments of the Jordanian population. In addition to utilizing the secondary literature on Jordanian and Iraqi political economies, this paper is based upon interview research with Iraqi and Jordanian traders, businessmen, economists, as well as trade data and new labor surveys. This paper is part of a larger project examining Jordan’s relationship to regional war. There are methodological challenges and data problems with this project and the paper will discuss those issues.