question: While the spotlight is on Syria and the catastrophic war of the last 10 years, seemingly winding down as it enters its second decade, the articles all address themes related to governance and will hopefully be of interest to all those curious about how regimes - both established and aspiring - justify their authority and how they extend it over the populations they claim to represent. [...]we finish this issue with the Recent Publications section, featuring short annotations of other new books by both our autumn and spring interns. Jacob Passel * Harvey P. Hall, "Editorial Foreword," The Middle East Journal 1, no. 1 (Jan. 1947): 2. † For some of the previous engagements with this theory in the Journal, see the "Sectarianism and the State" spotlight in our Spring 2019 issue (vol. 73, no. 1) as well as Ronnie Olesker, "Securitized Diplomacy: Israel's Jewish Identity and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process," vol. 72, no. 1 (Winter 2018): 9-27. https://doi.org/10.3751/72.1.11. * Philippe Droz-Vincent, "'State of Barbary' (Take Two): From the Arab Spring to the Return of Violence in Syria," The Middle East Journal 68, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 33-58. https://doi. org/10.3751/68.1.12.