The Afghanistan Assumptions Project (AAP) is a unique, independent, scholarly, research-based project into the 20-year engagement in Afghanistan. The basis of the examination is seven fundamental assumptions—political, military, economic, cultural, and diplomatic—that drove U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will look beyond what the United States got wrong in Afghanistan to understand how it got it wrong. This project is engaging a broad range of experts, both in convening a steering committee of policy experts, involved in key diplomatic, political, and military aspects of the war, and also in conducting individual interviews with other policymakers, scholars, journalists, and civil and military leaders. The Center for Strategic Studies research will culminate in a series of white papers, journal publications, and a serialized set of articles for academic and policy communities examining which lessons learned from past mistakes can be applied to future strategic decision making by policymakers. In particular, the CSS team will investigate critical inflection points in the war in Afghanistan when policy shifted most dramatically, and address key assumptions made by United States policymakers and foreign policy analysts.