One British official, Sir Claude Wade, analysing the aftermath of the First Afghan War wrote "there is nothing more to be dreaded or guarded against... than the overweening confidence with which Europeans are too often accustomed to regard the excellence of their own institutions and the anxiety that they display to introduce them in new and untried soils." If Loyn's book can prompt policymakers to remember and think about this message, then it will have performed an important and signal service.