Directorate S: America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Prior to 9/11, the United States had carried out numerous covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the Pakistani intelligence agency. Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. found itself on a slow-motion collision course with Pakistan.

In Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll provides a detailed telling of this clash, expanding upon his first book, Ghost Wars, to tell the story of the United States’ efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the years that followed. 

Steve Coll is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He was also president of the New America Foundation from 2007 to 2013. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and previously worked for twenty years at The Washington Post, where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990. He is the author of seven other books, including On the Grand Trunk Road, The Bin Ladens, Private Empire, and Directorate S. 

Participants: 

Steve Coll 
Author, Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan 
Dean, Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University 

Moderator: 

Peter Bergen, @peterbergencnn
Vice President, New America 
Director, International Security Program, New America