The SSRC’S Joint Near and Middle East Committee has organized a series of workshops on the state in its Middle Eastern context. The format consists of discussions of papers written by members of the committee, as well as of articles and chapters of books presented as background material by a small number of invited guests. A report on the first workshop, held at Buyukada, Istanbul, in September 1989 appeared in the MESA Bulletin 24 (1990), pages 179 to 183. A third workshop was held at St. Antony’s College, Oxford in December 1990.