Sign-In
Cart
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
Paperback
21st Century United States HistoryGeneral Political ScienceInternational Relations
Publisher Price: $23.00
ISBN13: 9780063270206
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: Nov 10 2026
Pages: 480
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.05 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A New York Times Bestseller * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Washington Post, Kirkus, Bloomberg, Chicago Public Library * A New York Times Editors' Choice
Updated with a new postscript on the CIA's role during Trump's second term.
No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer. --The Guardian
A masterpiece of reporting based on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors and scores of spies, station chiefs, and top operations officers: The Mission is a gripping and revelatory history of the modern CIA, reaching from 9/11 through its covert operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to today's secret battles with Russia and China, concluding with the Agency's own fight for survival under the current president of the United States
Tim Weiner's epic successor to Legacy of Ashes, his National Book Award-winning classic about the CIA's first sixty years
At the turn of the century, the Central Intelligence Agency was in crisis. The end of the Cold War had robbed the agency of its mission. More than thirty overseas stations and bases had been shuttered, and scores that remained had been severely cut back. Many countries where surveillance was once deemed crucial went uncovered. Essential intelligence wasn't being collected. At the dawn of the information age, the CIA's officers and analysts worked with outmoded technology, struggling to distinguish the clear signals of significant facts from the cacophony of background noise.
Then came September 11th, 2001. After the attacks, the CIA transformed itself into a lethal paramilitary force, running secret prisons and brutal interrogations, mounting deadly drone attacks, and all but abandoning its core missions of espionage and counterespionage. The consequences were grave: the deaths of scores of its recruited foreign agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the penetration of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must fight the hardest targets--Moscow, Beijing, Tehran--while confronting a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force.
From Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, The Mission tells the gripping, high-stakes story of the CIA through the first quarter of the twenty-first century, revealing how the agency fought to rebuild the espionage powers it lost during the war on terror--and finally succeeded in penetrating the Kremlin. The struggle has life-and-death consequences for America and its allies. The CIA must reclaim its original mission: know thy enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance.
A masterpiece of reporting, The Mission includes exclusive on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, the top spymaster, thirteen station chiefs, and scores of top operations officers who served undercover for decades and have never spoken to a journalist before.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Weiner, Tim
Also in
International Relations
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China
Miller, Manjari Chatterjee
Paperback
Dawn of the Code War: America's Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat
Graff, Garrett M.
Carlin, John P.
Paperback
Hostage on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst Crisis of 1949
Murfett, Malcolm H.
Hardcover
100 Deadly Skills: The Seal Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation
Emerson, Clint
Paperback
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
The Best Kind of American: A True Story of Murder, War, and America's Undoing in the Middle East
Ghattas, Kim
Hardcover
The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made
Hallemann, Caroline
Hardcover
The American School of Spies: The Archaeologists Who Fought the Nazis and Saved the Treasures of Ancient Greece
Talty, Stephan
Hardcover
The Havana Syndrome: Secret Weapons, a Government Cover-Up, and the Greatest Spy Mystery of Our Time
Rey, Michael
Zill de Granados, Oriana
Hardcover
A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps
Elledge, Jonn
Paperback
The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World
Pancevski, Bojan
Hardcover
Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider's View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People
Freeland, Chrystia
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Paperback
A Shadow Over the World: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Rise of Fascism, and the Making of America's World War II
Hitchcock, William I.
Hardcover
Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II
Graham, Elyse
Paperback
Killed to Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary
Jekielek, Jan
Hardcover
Kennedy's Coup: A White House Plot, a Saigon Murder, and America's Descent Into Vietnam
Cheevers, Jack
Hardcover
Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran
Leverett, Hillary Mann
Leverett, Flynt
Paperback
How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy
Bown, Chad P.
Keynes, Soumaya
Hardcover
Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Big Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare
Feldstein, Steve
Hardcover
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the Cia, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
Talbot, David
Paperback
Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic
Rosen, Kenneth R.
Hardcover
Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder
McFaul, Michael
Hardcover
The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources
Farchy, Jack
Blas, Javier
Paperback
100 Deadly Skills: A Navy SEAL's Guide to Crushing Your Enemy, Fighting for Your Life, and Embracing Your Inner Badass
Emerson, Clint
Paperback
Embargo: The 1973 Oil Crisis That Changed the World (and What We Can Learn from It Now)
Delves Broughton, Philip
Hardcover
Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran & North Korea
Dezenski, Elaine K.
Bowman, Bradley L.
Montgomery, Rear Admiral (Ret) Mark
Paperback
Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States
Parsi, Trita
Paperback
China Whisperers: The Voices That Have Shaped America's Views of Its Chief Geopolitical Rival
Kaplan, Robert D.
Hardcover
Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy (Large Print Edition)
MacIntyre, Ben
Paperback
The Visionaries: Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the Making of the Post-World War II Order
Holland, James
Hardcover
Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War
Wiswesser, Sean Michael
Hardcover
In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis
Kaufman, Elliot
Bob, Yonah Jeremy
Hardcover
The Only Plane in the Sky (Revised and Expanded Edition for the 25th Anniversary): An Oral History of 9/11
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
More Than a Shirt: How Football Shirts Explain Global Politics, Money and Power
D'Urso, Joey
Paperback
Unleash Your Humanity: Where Personal Awakening Becomes Collective Change
Sherif, Yasmine
Tavis, Scott
Paperback
The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets
Shedd, David R.
Badger, Andrew
Hardcover
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness: Reports on Israel's Genocide in Palestine
Albanese, Francesca
Paperback
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
MacIntyre, Ben
Paperback
Broken China: How the Economic Miracle Shattered and What It Means for the World
Wright, Logan
Hardcover
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Paperback
The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
Crist, David
Paperback
We Are The Bad Guys: How The U.S. Wages War, Controls Economies, and Calls It Freedom
Lester, Michael
Paperback
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Milanovic, Branko
Hardcover
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II
Mundy, Liza
Paperback
Against Our Better Judgment: The hidden history of how the United States was used to create Israel
Weir, Alison
Paperback
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the Fbi, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
Burrough, Bryan
Paperback
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
Olson, Lynne
Paperback
Dead Center: Behind the Scenes at the World's Largest Medical Examiner's Office
Ribowsky, Shiya
Shachtman, Tom
Paperback
The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources
Blas, Javier
Farchy, Jack
Hardcover
Undersea War: The Battle to Control the Cables and Pipelines That Connect Our World
Braw, Elisabeth
Hardcover
Two World Wars and Hitler: Who Was Responsible?: Anglo-American Money, Foreign Agents and Geopolitics
MacGregor, Jim
O'Dowd, John
Paperback
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives
Brzezinski, Zbigniew
Paperback
The Globalist Plan to Collapse Everything: To Usher in a New World Order
Roberts, Allan Paul
Paperback
Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins
Jacobsen, Annie
Paperback
The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
MacIntyre, Ben
Paperback
9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
National Comm on Terrorist Attacks
Paperback
Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict
Stephan, Maria
Chenoweth, Erica
Paperback
The Shortest History of War: From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers - A Retelling for Our Times
Dyer, Gwynne
Paperback
Shadow Cell: An Insider Account of America's New Spy War
Bustamante, Andrew
Bustamante, Jihi
Hardcover
While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East
Katz, Yaakov
Bohbot, Amir
Hardcover
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Gage, Beverly
Paperback