Dr Conor Keane has degrees in law and politics, and a doctorate on nation-building in Afghanistan from Macquarie University. His research interests include counter terrorism, state building, bureaucratic politics and US foreign policy. He has published several articles on these topics in journals such as Armed Forces & Society and International Peacekeeping.
'Conor Keane has written a terrific (if not terrifically depressing) account of how bureaucratic process compromised so much of the US war on terror. Using first-hand accounts with the men and women involved, the book provides a vivid and damning analysis of how nation-building in Afghanistan was undone by competition between personalities and their departments in Washington. The book offers a robust and highly readable account of US failure that is sure to secure its place amongst the best analyses of the war in Afghanistan and of the domestic structural problems that bedevil contemporary American foreign policy. It is a model piece of historical and political analysis.' Timothy J. Lynch, University of Melbourne, Australia 'This book provides an important look at how the US government's internal struggles among agencies undercut performance in Afghanistan; a repeated problem since Vietnam that badly needs correcting.' Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann (ret.), American Academy of Diplomacy, US