1. Introduction, Sally N. Cummings and Raymond Hinnebusch; Section One: Histories of Empire and After; 2. Russian Empires, Dominic Lieven; 3. The British and French empires in the Arab world: Some problems of colonial state-formation and its legacy, James McDougall; 4. Ottoman Legacies and Economic Sovereignty in Post-Imperial Anatolia, Syria and Iraq, Fred Lawson; Section Two: Paths to Sovereignty - Views from the Core and Periphery; 5. Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire and After, Ben Fortna; 6. Mandated Sovereignty? The Role of International Law in the Construction of Arab Statehood during and after Empire, Michelle Burgis; 7. Reluctant sovereigns? Central Asian states' path to independence, Mohira Suyarkulova; Section Three: Empire and Domestic Sovereignty; 8. The Middle East after Empire: Sovereignty and Institutions, Louise Fawcett; 9. Sovereignty after empire: the colonial roots of Central Asian authoritarianism, David Lewis; Section Four: Empire and Popular Sovereignty; 10. Culture, Colonialism and Sovereignty in Central Asia, Laura L. Adams; 11. Culture in the Middle East: the 'Western Question' and the sovereignty of post-imperial states in the Middle East, Morten Valbjørn; 12. Pathways of Islamist mobilisation against the state in the Middle East and Central Asia, Frederic Volpi; Section Five: Empire and External Sovereignty; 13. Empire and State Formation: Contrary tangents in Jordan and Syria, Raymond Hinnebusch; 14. Rentierism, Dependency and Sovereignty in Central Asia, Wojciech Ostrowski; 15. Tajikistan: from de facto colony to sovereign dependency, Muriel Atkin; Conclusions, Sally N. Cummings and Raymond Hinnebusch