Directorate S

Winner of the the National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction

'Spellbinding... a magisterial account of the great tragedy of our age ... it is a classic' Evening Standard
'In the finest traditions of American investigative journalism' The Times
'Spectacular ... makes Bourne movies pale in comparison' Financial Times

From the Pulitzer Prize winning of the acclaimed Ghost Wars, this is the full story of America's grim involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2016. In the wake of the terrible shock of 9/11, the C.I.A. scrambled to workout how to destroy Bin Laden and his associates.The C.I.A. had longfamiliarity with Afghanistan and had worked closely with the Taliban todefeat the Soviet Union there.A tangle of assumptions, old contacts,favours and animosities were now reactivated.Superficially theinvasion was quick and efficient, but Bin Laden's successful escape,together with that of much of the Taliban leadership, and a catastrophicfailure to define the limits of NATO's mission in a tough, impoverishedcountry the size of Texas, created a quagmire which lasted many years.

Atthe heart of the problem lay 'Directorate S', a highly secretive arm ofthe Pakistan state which had its own views on the Taliban andAfghanistan's place in a wider competition for influence betweenPakistan, India and China, and which assumed that the U.S.A. and itsallies would soon be leaving.

Steve Coll's remarkable new booktells a powerful, bitter story of just how badly foreign policydecisions can go wrong and of many lives lost.

Reviews

Impressively detailed, stylishly crafted and authoritative... as gloomy as it is compelling