Carter Malkasian was the Special Assistant for Strategy to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, from 2015 to 2019. He has extensive experience working in Afghanistan through multiple deployments throughout the country. The highlight of his work is nearly two years in Garmser district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, as a State Department political officer and the district stabilization team leader. He is the author of War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press) and Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State (Oxford). He has a doctorate in history from Oxford and is fluent in Pashto.

• Chapter One: Thinking About America's War in AfghanistanChapter Two: The Country and Peoples of AfghanistanChapter Three: The First Taliban RegimeChapter Four: The United States Enters AfghanistanChapter Five: The Karzai RegimeChapter Six: Disorder in KandaharChapter Seven: The Taliban OffensiveChapter Eight: A Second Taliban Regime, 2007-2010Chapter Nine: The War in the EastChapter Ten: Kandahar City and Lashkar GahChapter Eleven: The New Administration and the SurgeChapter Twelve: The Surge in HelmandChapter Thirteen: The Surge in KandaharChapter Fourteen: End of the SurgeChapter Fifteen: Ghazni and the EastChapter Sixteen: The new army and police, insider attacks, and the bilateral security agreementChapter Seventeen: The 2014 ElectionsChapter Eighteen: The Taliban Offensives of 2015 and 2016Chapter Nineteen: The Trump AdministrationChapter Twenty: Peace TalksChapter Twenty-One: Looking Back on Eighteen Years of War in AfghanistanReferencesNotesIndex

Malkasian offers a nonpareil history of a war that initially was viewed as one of necessity but increasingly became one of choice. His book sets the standard for all future works that will examine the causes and nature of yet another unhappy American military adventure on the mainland of Asia.

Carter Malkasian was the Special Assistant for Strategy to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, from 2015 to 2019. He has extensive experience working in Afghanistan through multiple deployments throughout the country. The highlight of his work is nearly two years in Garmser district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, as a State Department political officer and the district stabilization team leader. He is the author of War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press) and Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State (Oxford). He has a doctorate in history from Oxford and is fluent in Pashto.

• Chapter One: Thinking About America's War in AfghanistanChapter Two: The Country and Peoples of AfghanistanChapter Three: The First Taliban RegimeChapter Four: The United States Enters AfghanistanChapter Five: The Karzai RegimeChapter Six: Disorder in KandaharChapter Seven: The Taliban OffensiveChapter Eight: A Second Taliban Regime, 2007-2010Chapter Nine: The War in the EastChapter Ten: Kandahar City and Lashkar GahChapter Eleven: The New Administration and the SurgeChapter Twelve: The Surge in HelmandChapter Thirteen: The Surge in KandaharChapter Fourteen: End of the SurgeChapter Fifteen: Ghazni and the EastChapter Sixteen: The new army and police, insider attacks, and the bilateral security agreementChapter Seventeen: The 2014 ElectionsChapter Eighteen: The Taliban Offensives of 2015 and 2016Chapter Nineteen: The Trump AdministrationChapter Twenty: Peace TalksChapter Twenty-One: Looking Back on Eighteen Years of War in AfghanistanReferencesNotesIndex

Malkasian offers a nonpareil history of a war that initially was viewed as one of necessity but increasingly became one of choice. His book sets the standard for all future works that will examine the causes and nature of yet another unhappy American military adventure on the mainland of Asia.

Carter Malkasian was the Special Assistant for Strategy to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, from 2015 to 2019. He has extensive experience working in Afghanistan through multiple deployments throughout the country. The highlight of his work is nearly two years in Garmser district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, as a State Department political officer and the district stabilization team leader. He is the author of War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press) and Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State (Oxford). He has a doctorate in history from Oxford and is fluent in Pashto.

• Chapter One: Thinking About America's War in AfghanistanChapter Two: The Country and Peoples of AfghanistanChapter Three: The First Taliban RegimeChapter Four: The United States Enters AfghanistanChapter Five: The Karzai RegimeChapter Six: Disorder in KandaharChapter Seven: The Taliban OffensiveChapter Eight: A Second Taliban Regime, 2007-2010Chapter Nine: The War in the EastChapter Ten: Kandahar City and Lashkar GahChapter Eleven: The New Administration and the SurgeChapter Twelve: The Surge in HelmandChapter Thirteen: The Surge in KandaharChapter Fourteen: End of the SurgeChapter Fifteen: Ghazni and the EastChapter Sixteen: The new army and police, insider attacks, and the bilateral security agreementChapter Seventeen: The 2014 ElectionsChapter Eighteen: The Taliban Offensives of 2015 and 2016Chapter Nineteen: The Trump AdministrationChapter Twenty: Peace TalksChapter Twenty-One: Looking Back on Eighteen Years of War in AfghanistanReferencesNotesIndex

Malkasian offers a nonpareil history of a war that initially was viewed as one of necessity but increasingly became one of choice. His book sets the standard for all future works that will examine the causes and nature of yet another unhappy American military adventure on the mainland of Asia.