Even as war continues to rage in Syria, normal people in the country are doing their best to survive in places like the village of Korin. It has transformed into a kind of mini-republic and has WiFi on the town square.

Of course, the situation isn't all roses.  The catastrophe that is life in this war-torn region is well described; I don't mean to suggest that I am presenting a complete picture – either of the situation in Syria or of a fully-developed life without a state.  However, in this situation one will find governance forming in the absence of a state – along a line that conforms to the idea that both local culture and natural leaders will come to the fore.

In other words, non-state-enforced governance in a world occupied by humans.

Korin and the entire region surrounding it, with hundreds of towns and villages, have been living for almost four years in a state of anarchy.

It is almost as though someone had devised a wicked experiment to see what happens when everything that serves public order is suddenly removed. When police, courts and indeed the entire state simply disappears without a new one replacing it.

Anarchy in the worst sense and anarchy in the best sense.  Here I will offer some green shoots – how might a society form governance structures without the existence of a state?

If the war weren't still going on, one could almost have called it a peaceful summer.

Life in the village of Korin, with a population of about 11,000, is relatively peaceful except for those occasions when the villagers were met by an enemy (the Syrian air force as one example) that overwhelmingly out-gunned the residents.

Natural leaders develop…naturally:

Ajini used to be an English professor in the provincial capital but is now the village's chain-smoking éminence grise.

Without a state, all is not chaos:

Instead of simply crumbling, public order has merely contracted….For years now, the media has portrayed Syria as being entirely consumed by horror and destruction, by explosions and black-clad barbarians who behead their victims on camera. But there are countless places that — like islands in a storm — are doing all they can to survive the fighting.

Contrary to open borders, residents want to be careful about who comes and goes – a managed border:

Traveling from one town to the next "is today like crossing an international border," adds the Korin village council member who is responsible for ensuring the town's water supply.

Fear of the others grew automatically, he says, fear of those one doesn't know so well and who don't offer protection.

No police, no courts – yet there is relative calm:

The calm is astounding given the fact that it is simple for people to arm themselves. It is easier than ever to kill someone should one so desire…

Calm, even though it is easy to secure firearms.  Not "astounding," if one considers the entire circumstance.

…and it has become virtually impossible to hold criminals accountable without risking a blood feud.

But criminals are held accountable; it is done in a tempered manner – a level of justice determined in order to avoid unending escalation.