Chris Kolenda does not own a pith helmet or a red tunic, never carries a swagger stick and is forbidden from growing a moustache and sideburns. In almost every other respect the American army officer could be a character straight from the annals of the British Raj.

In his home on a rocky outcrop in the foothills of the breathtaking Hindu Kush mountain range, Lieutenant-Colonel Kolenda is a modern-day “Man Who Would Be King”. He is master of a remote corner of eastern Afghanistan, the region that his British colonial predecessors fought to control more than a century ago.

The fresh-faced, 42-year-old historian turned soldier laughs at the comparison, but admits there are similarities. Back then, young officers in the Indian Army devoted their careers to taming this frontier region in a struggle known as The Great Game. American troops have notched up seven years in the same pursuit. Many believe that the endeavour will last a generation or more.

When Colonel Kolenda's unit of paratroopers arrived here last summer for a 15-month tour, they were at once embroiled in a fierce battle with local fighters. The Americans, armed with artillery and air power, won each engagement but at a toll of four dead soldiers and thirty-one injured. Even today the mountain gorges echo to the rumble of US artillery fire and the crack of rifle shot.

As he explains - and as the British learnt - firepower alone will not win this counter-insurgency battle. American soldiers have had to become tribal experts, linguists and aid workers in order to win over the local population and isolate the militant groups

“When you get development you see better security,” said the officer, whose men have brought 295 tonnes of aid into this province, where most villages do not have running water, electricity or access to basic services.

The Americans have also built 200km (124 miles) of roads, nine bridges, twenty clinics and sixteen schools. The transformation, in a region neglected during the 30 years of war, is dramatic. One clinic, built a few months ago for a local tribe, has had 9,000 visits in the few months since it opened. In recent days, Afghan workmen were busy building a bridge over the raging Kunar river, after locals had risked their lives to cross on a raft made of inner-tubes and planks.

Sometimes the economic battle against the Taleban and other militant Islamic groups is about the small details. “If the daily rate for a fighter is $5 a day, then I will pay $5.50 for someone to work on a construction site,” said Commander Dan Dwyer, who runs the reconstruction effort in Kunar province.

There is evidence that the US strategy is working. An apprentice school near the regional capital, Asadabad, which teaches carpentry, masonry and plumbing, is full of young men learning a trade who might otherwise have taken up a gun.

“People in my village told me not to work with the Americans, but I decided it was an opportunity I could not turn down,” said Abdul Khaliq, who is training to become a bricklayer. “This is for my future.”

But if America appears to be winning the battle here, it is far from winning the war. As we left a remote US base, the wreckage of a convoy of lorries ambushed by gunmen blocked the road on the valley below.

Britain spent much of a century trying to subdue this rugged land and failed. As the Americans admit, it is early days in their campaign.

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