By RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN
CIPS Policy Brief No. 11, March 2011

  • The turnaround in Nawa district over the past 20 months demonstrates what is possible in Afghanistan when all the elements of a counterinsurgency strategy come together correctly.
  • NATO commanders hope to employ the lessons of Nawa in other strife-torn parts of the country.
  • Despite the improvements, the changes in Nawa still feel fragile, and much of what has transpired appears more unique than universal

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Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a senior correspondent and associate editor of the Washington Post. His reporting focuses on the war in Afghanistan where he travels often to interview Afghans and Americans involved in counterinsurgency operations. Mr. Chandrasekaran has also served as The Post’s bureau chief in Bagdad and Cairo. He is the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a best-selling account of the troubled American effort to reconstruct Iraq.