The Book Prize Index

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

Steve Coll

Traces America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the years since 9/11, and how the U.S. efforts in the Afghan War faltered because of a failure to understand the intentions of Pakistan's intelligence agency.

War & MilitaryWar & Military · high confidenceWar & Military81 signalsLlm Classifier: War & Military -> War & MilitaryOpen Library: Special operations (Military science) -> ScienceOpen Library: Military relations -> War & MilitaryIntelligence, Secrecy & SurveillanceWar & Military StrategySoldiers, Veterans & Combat Experience

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionMajor2018WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    • Afghanistan90%
    • Pakistan90%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The U.S. efforts in the Afghan War faltered because America failed to understand the intentions of Pakistan's intelligence agency.

    Model confidence 78%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 83%.