Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction By Professor Hew Strachan -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: The Script and Its Cast -- 2 Civil-Military Decision-makers within their Theoretical Context -- 3 The Analytical Prism -- 4 From Regime Change, to Peace Building, to Countering Insurgents: stabilising Afghanistan -- 5 The Decision Path to Uruzgan -- 6 The Decision Path to Helmand -- 7 Cross-Case Analysis: A Powerful Idea Meets a Window of Opportunity -- 8 Findings Inescapable Entrapments: Informal Action Channels, and Path-Dependent Reasoning -- 9 Avenues for Future Research: Bridging the Theory-Practice Nexus in Strategic Studies -- List of respondents -- Bibliography -- Notes -- Index.