Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences: Series Number 34: Disrupting Dark Networks

This is the first book in which counterinsurgency theory and social network analysis are coupled. Disrupting Dark Networks focuses on how social network analysis can be used to craft strategies to track, destabilize, and disrupt covert and illegal networks. The book begins with an overview of the key terms and assumptions of social network analysis and various counterinsurgency strategies. The next several chapters introduce readers to algorithms and metrics commonly used by social network analysts. They provide worked examples from four different social network analysis software packages (UCINET, NetDraw, Pajek, and ORA) using standard network data sets as well as data from an actual terrorist network that serves as a running example throughout the book. The book concludes by considering the ethics of and various ways that social network analysis can inform counterinsurgency strategizing. By contextualizing these methods in a larger counterinsurgency framework, this book offers scholars and analysts an array of approaches for disrupting dark networks.

Sean F. Everton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Defense Analysis, as well as the Co-Director of the CORE Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School.