Afghanistan has been a theatre of civil and international conflict for much of the 20th Century - stability is essential if there is to be peace in the Middle East. Yet policymakers in the West often seem to forget the lessons learned from previous administrations, whose interventions have contributed to the instability in the region. Here, Afshan Dorani focuses on the process of decision-making, looking at which factors influenced American policy-makers in the build-up to the second Afghan War, and how reactions on the ground in Afghanistan have influenced events since then. America in...