The objective of this brief is to help trigger a badly needed reassessment by the new U.S. administration of what has gone wrong in the way the aid effort has been conducted in Afghanistan. It does not focus on the specific U.S. aid effort, but on the international community's development efforts in Afghanistan. It also aims to ensure that the U.S. administration's reflection occurs in the context of efforts to strengthen transatlantic development and security cooperation. In short, it explains that in a context of inadequate Afghan leadership, the lack of serious coordination and strategic planning among key donors in Afghanistan has seriously undermined aid effectiveness. As the biggest donor and the country most interested in the fate of Afghanistan, the United States has not provided the type of leadership that has been needed. Since neither the government nor other key donors were able to provide leadership, the aid effort has been particularly disorganized.