From the New York Times best-selling author, a tragic history of the United States’ war on terror across four presidential administrations.
2026 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. The resulting war on terror cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. And yet despite its blunders, this campaign has kept America safe from foreign attack. Based on hundreds of interviews, All the Presidents’ Wars focuses on critical decisions of four successive presidents—Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. One of the few journalists to interview Osama bin Laden and have unparalleled access to the US intelligence community, Peter Bergen explores the birth of ISIS; the many terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups; the rise of al-Qaeda in Iraq, largely responsible for the Iraqi civil war in the mid-2000s; the resurrection of Afghanistan’s Taliban; and Trump’s war with Iran. All the Presidents’ Wars is essential reading for understanding the devastating history of America’s war on terror and for avoiding the mistakes of the past.
Peter Bergen is a journalist, documentary producer, professor, and author of seven books, including Manhunt, one of three New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Washington, DC.
Bergen will be in conversation with Joby Warrick, a bestselling author, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and national security correspondent for The Washington Post, where he has served for almost three decades. He has written extensively on topics ranging from Middle East conflicts and terrorism to nuclear proliferation and climate change. Warrick is the author of three previous works of narrative nonfiction, including the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS. A native of North Carolina, he has two adult children and lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.