Aspen Ideas Session “The Mission”
Aspen Institute España hosted an Aspen Ideas Program session titled “The Mission” with the means of celebrating the latest book by Tim Weiner, reporter for The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize winner. The session was held on October 21 and was moderated by Santiago Liniers, Director of Programs at Aspen Institute España.
Tim Weiner
Tim Weiner is a reporter for The New York Times and won the Pulitzer Prize for his work on secret national security programs. He has spent twenty years covering intelligence affairs in the United States, as well as terrorism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and other countries. He has first-hand knowledge of the CIA’s secret operations, which he chronicled in his international bestseller Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. The book earned him numerous awards, including the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best History Book of 2007. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and appeared on year-end lists of the best books in major U.S. publications. The Mission: The History of the CIA in the 21st Century is his sixth book.
“The Mission. The CIA in the 21st Century”
Since his first visit to Langley in 1988—just after returning from Afghanistan, where he had covered the last major battle of the Cold War—Tim Weiner has made the CIA his professional and moral landscape. In the prologue to The Mission, the journalist recalls how that moment of vocation led him to compile “a vast amount of declassified documents” and conduct “more than two hundred interviews,” which became the foundation of Legacy of Ashes (2007), his canonical history of the Agency.
In this new book, written beginning in 2022, Weiner picks up the thread to portray the CIA of the 21st century “in the words of those who lived it,” doing so with unprecedented access to internal sources. His relationships with directors, station chiefs, analysts, and operatives lend the work an unusual authority—somewhere between investigative journalism and oral history.
The result is a chronicle that reveals how, after 9/11, the Agency redefined itself amid isolated successes, strategic failures, and ethical dilemmas that continue to shape U.S. foreign policy to this day.
Aspen Ideas Program
The Aspen Ideas Program aims to provide a forum for debate on current issues for emerging leaders from different sectors of society, many of whom have already taken part in Aspen Spain programs. On the occasion of book publications or in response to current events, we bring together groups of 30 participants for discussions with experts on topics such as geopolitics, new technologies, leadership, energy, or international economics.
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