New Book Announcement - Losing the Good War: Obama and Afghanistan

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Aug. 17, 2026 - PRLog -- The University Press of Kansas announces the publication of Losing the Good War: Obama and Afghanistan by Sarah Burns and Robert Haswell, a deeply researched examination of how President Barack Obama expanded American involvement in Afghanistan even as the prospects for long-term success appeared increasingly uncertain. Part of the acclaimed Landmark Presidential Decisions series, this volume offers a clear-eyed analysis of one of the defining foreign policy decisions of the Obama presidency and its lasting consequences for American strategy abroad.

When Obama entered office in 2009, he inherited two prolonged conflicts that had reshaped American foreign policy and exhausted public support for military intervention. While the administration moved toward ending the war in Iraq, Afghanistan emerged as the central focus of US military and diplomatic efforts. Burns and Haswell trace how political pressures, military influence, and competing strategic priorities led Obama to authorize a major troop surge modeled on the counterinsurgency campaign previously implemented in Iraq. Yet unlike the Iraqi surge, the Afghanistan escalation carried a fixed timetable for withdrawal, creating tensions between military objectives and political realities from the outset.

Published amid ongoing debate over presidential war powers, counterterrorism strategy, and the legacy of post-9/11 foreign policy, Losing the Good War offers important historical perspective on the strategic and political difficulties of modern American interventionism. Burns and Haswell provide a nuanced assessment of how campaign rhetoric, military planning, and geopolitical realities combined to produce a conflict widely viewed as unwinnable, while illuminating the enduring challenges presidents face in balancing political commitments, military advice, and national security objectives.

Key Features & News Angles

• Reassesses Obama's Afghanistan Surge: Examines how Barack Obama expanded US involvement in Afghanistan despite growing doubts about the war's long-term viability.
• Inside Presidential Decision-Making: Analyzes the political pressures, military advice, and strategic calculations that shaped one of the defining foreign policy decisions of the Obama presidency.
• Challenges the "Good War" Narrative: Explores how Afghanistan evolved from a widely supported intervention into a prolonged and increasingly unwinnable conflict.
• Counterinsurgency Under Scrutiny: Investigates the attempt to replicate the Iraqi troop surge in Afghanistan and the structural limitations that undermined the strategy.
• Timely Foreign Policy Relevance: Contributes historical perspective to ongoing debates over military intervention, counterterrorism, and the legacy of post-9/11 American foreign policy.
• Documents Institutional Failures: Reveals how corruption, weak governance, and dependence on American military support hindered efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and transfer authority to Afghan forces.

Learn more about the book here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700642939/