"The Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War"--Page facing title page.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. 1. Historical and theoretical exits. Transition and the end of empire / John Darwin ; Tropical transitions in colonial counter-insurgency: from Malayan emergency to post-colonial partnership / Karl Hack ; Transitions: Britain's decolonization of India and Pakistan / Robert Johnson ; Exit from empire: counter-insurgency and decolonization in Kenya, 1952-1963 / David M. Anderson ; 'A graveyard for the British'? Tactics, military operations, and the paucity of strategy in Aden, 1964-1967 / Aaron Edwards ; Transitioning in and out of COIN: efficiency, legitimacy, and power in Oman / James Worrall ; Vanishing act: Britain's abandonment of Arabia and retreat from the Gulf / Saul Kelly ; The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan / Rodric Braithwaite ; Stopping the cycles of violence: political transition in Algeria since 1988 in a comparative perspective / Martin Evans ; The end of Operation New Dawn: the Tropic Lightning Division in Iraq / Mark Battjes ; Transitions and hybrid political orders / Roger Mac Ginty ; News media, communications, and the limits of perception management and propaganda during military operations / Piers Robinson -- pt. 2. The practice of exit: security and governance transitions in Afghanistan. Delivering and conceptualizing transition: experiences and lessons from the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team, 2010-2012 / Peter Rundell ; Political analysis and understanding in Afghanistan: beyond transition / Anthony King ; Negotiated agreements in tactical transitions: The Sangin Accord 2011 / Mark Beautement ; Local and tactical political accommodation: evident from Afghanistan / Antonio Giustozzi ; The changing role of contractors in security transition in southern Afghanistan / James Dunsby ; 'Gripping and touching' the Afghan National Security Forces: tactical and operational experiences during Operation Herrick 16 / Oliver Lewis and Andrew Britton ; 'Insider'/'outsider' policing: observations on the role of UK police (MDP) in Afghanistan and the application of 'lessons learnt' / Georgina Sinclair ; The other side of COIN: new challenges for British police and military in the twenty-first century / Lindsay Clutterbuck.

No modern intervention is intended to endure indefinitely; indeed some fashion of exit is always envisioned from the outset. This commitment to an exit is normally informed by an exit strategy. Whilst strategies of closure have been scrutinised recently, not least in light of charges of defective intentions and planning, the relations between the strategies, operations and tactics of exit have not been contextualised. Focus on the local, specific and bottom-up manifestations of transitions offers significant enhances to historical, theoretical and applied understandings. This book is an introduction not just to the issues of transition, handover and withdrawal, but to exit as a package of theoretical concepts and how these have been understood, shaped and employed in historic and contemporary perspective. Drawing on a wide range of post-1945 examples derived from a variety of regions and periods, this book provides researchers and practitioners with a source book on what forms a crucial and often overlooked element of past and present interventions.