Robert Johnson is the Director of the Oxford Changing Character of War programme and Senior Research Fellow of Pembroke College. A former army officer, he is the author of The Afghan Way of War (2011) and a specialist on historical and current conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. Timothy Clack is a Senior Research Fellow of the Oxford Changing Character of War Programme. He has held research and teaching positions at the University of Oxford since 2006, and has current research interests into various conflict drivers, including the ownership of the past, cultural hybridization, and trans-border migration and exchange, primarily related to areas in the Horn of Africa.

• Forword ; Introduction: Principles, Themes and Problems in Transitions ; PART I: HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL EXITS ; 1. Transition and the End of Empire ; 2. Tropical Transitions in Colonial Counterinsurgency: From Malayan Emergency to Postcolonial Partnership ; 3. Transition: Britain's Decolonization of India and Pakistan ; 4. Exit From Empire: Counter-Insurgency and Decolonization in Kenya, 1952-1963 ; 5. 'A Graveyard for the British'? Tactics, Military Operations and the Paucity of Strategy in Aden, 1964-67 ; 6. Transitioning In and Out of COIN: Efficiency, Legitimacy and Power in Oman ; 7. Vanishing Act: Britain's Abandonment of Arabia and Retreat from the Gulf ; 8. The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan ; 9. Stopping the Cycles of Violence: Political Transition in Algeria since 1988 in Comparative Context ; 10. The End of Operation New Dawn: The Tactics of the Tropic Lightning Division in Iraq ; 11. Transitions and Hybrid Political Orders ; 12. News Media, Communications and the Limits of Perception Management during Military Operations ; PART II: THE PRACTICE OF EXIT: SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE TRANSITIONS IN AFGHANISTAN ; 13. Delivering and Conceptualising Transition: Experiences and Lessons from the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team ; 14. Political Analysis and Understanding in Afghanistan: Towards Transition ; 15. Negotiated Agreements in Tactical Transitions: The Sangin Accord 2011 ; 16. Local and Tactical Political Accommodation: Evidence from Afghanistan ; 17. The Changing Role of Contractors in Security Transition in Southern Afghanistan ; 18. 'Gripping and Touching' the Afghan National Security Forces: Tactical and Operational Experiences during Operation HERRICK 16 ; 19. 'Insider' / 'Outsider' Policing: Observations on the Role of UK Police (MDP) in Afghanistan and the Application of 'Lessons Learnt' ; 20. The Other Side of COIN: New Challenges for British Police and Military in the 21st century

Their [Johnson and Tim Clack] essays on Afghanistan, and those by Antonio Giustozzi and Mark Beautement, illustrate brilliantly the complexity of events on the ground which much of the political and bureaucratic class and the media narrative have failed to appreciate.