Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

A finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction

Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofGhost Wars,the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11

Prior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation with I.S.I., the Pakistani intelligence agency. While the United States was trying to quell extremists, a highly secretive wing of I.S.I., Directorate S, was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban in order to enlarge Pakistans influence. Today we know that the war in Afghanistan would falter badly. But more than anything, it was doomed because of the failure of the United States to apprehend the intentions of Directorate S.

Resuming the narrative of the Pulitzer Prizewinning Ghost Wars, Steve Coll excavates this grand battle, which took place away from the gaze of the American public, and brings to life a narrative at once vast and intricate, propulsive and painstaking.