I discuss the calculation of electromagnetic and weak reactions in systems with A = 2-4 using potentials and current operators derived within chiral effective theory (χET). I focus on computations up to O(P 3 ) relative to leading, and review results that show:(a) At this order χET gives a good description of extant data on the deuteron's charge and quadrupole form factors for momentum transfers |q| < 0.6 GeV. Its predictions will be challenged by forthcoming precision data from BLAST and JLab.(b) The χET nuclear force and current operator can be fixed up to O(P 3 ) using NN-system observables, together with two pieces of strong-interaction data from the three-nucleon system. χET then explains the magnetic moments of 3 H and 3 He, as well as experiments on the threshold capture reaction nd→tγ.(c) The χET expansion for weak currents has reached unprecedented accuracy. When used to anlayze data on the weak-capture process, 3 He(µ − , ν µ ) 3 H, it yields the tightest contraint on the conserved vector-current hypothesis.In all these cases I stress χET's ability to systematically describe the interplay between the pionrange and shorter-distance dynamics that is at work in these reactions.