This post is a summary of impressions from book reads, documentaries and other sources of information I get exposed to in relation to the study of subjucts such as intellligence, foreign-policy, terrorism, cyber-security and more.

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

This is the followup book on Ghost Wars. While I found Ghost Wars to be an incredibly good read this book was rather more informative than entertaining.

The book largely revolves around the actions of the prior Afghani president Karzai, Afghanistans relationsship with Pakistan, the policy of the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI towards the Taliban and the USA policy.

All in all a very good read on policy and conflict in afghanistan and Pakistan post 9/11.

ISBN: 978-0143132509

Score: 4/5

Secret Victory: The Intelligence War that Beat the IRA

With more or less no prior knowledge of the IRA I found the book a bit disorienting to read, especially in the beginning, which I guess is because of the assumption made by the author about any eventual readers. The book is a fascinating read as it very much highlights the border area between war and crime which appears with an insurgency.

One is told the story on the failure and successes on choosing well-balanced methods in order to not cause large public dissent but also succesfully fight the insurgeny.

ISBN: 978-1527202054

Score: 3/5