Book of the week: The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth by Mark Mazzetti

“The new American way of war is here, but the debate about it has just begun.”

(Penguin, $30)

“The new American way of war is here, but the debate about it has just begun,” said The Economist. In a book that describes a shadowy world “with some verve and much new detail,” The New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti shows us how roles have shifted in the military and among the nation’s intelligence agencies as drones and special operations units carry out more overseas missions. The CIA is “the big gorilla” in the reshuffled hierarchy, having shifted focus since 9/11 from intelligence-gathering to conducting or overseeing targeted capture and kill operations. Though President Obama forced the agency to shut down various overseas detention centers, he’s increased CIA power by embracing the new paradigm—a type of warfare “waged in far-off lands by spies, special forces, and robotized killing machines.”

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