Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan

In Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former CNAS Writer-in-Residence and senior correspondent and associate editor at The Washington Post, discusses the complex relationship between America and Afghanistan reaching back to the Cold War.

When President Barack Obama ordered the surge of troops and aid to Afghanistan, Washington Post correspondent Chandrasekaran followed. He found the effort sabotaged not only by Afghan and Pakistani malfeasance but also by infighting and incompetence within the American government. Employing both historical context and compelling personal accounts, Chandrasekaran explains how the United States has never understood Afghanistan - and probably never will.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a senior correspondent and associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1994. He has been the newspaper's bureau chief in Baghdad, Cairo and Southeast Asia, and has been covering Afghanistan off and on for a decade. His first book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, won the Overseas Press Club book award.