Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

  • October 6, 2015
Sean Naylor

Contributing Editor, Foreign Policy


Relentless Strike

The raid on Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, the capture of Saddam Hussein, and the heroic take-down of Somali pirates that rescued Captain Richard Phillips were all carried out by the special mission units of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). In Relentless Strike, the award-winning defense journalist Sean Naylor of ForeignPolicy.com, tells the inside story of JSOC and how it has revolutionized counterterrorism operations over the past decade by seamlessly fusing intelligence and operational skills to conduct missions that hit the headlines, and those that have remained in the shadows — until now. Naylor is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Not a Good Day to Die, about Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, and has reported on military operations from Somalia to the Balkans to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Mr. Naylor succeeds splendidly in showing how and why the Joint Special Operations Command evolved—and why it will remain a valuable weapon against the extremists who run rampant in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other dangerous places.” – Mark Moyar, Wall Street Journal 

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