Understanding Dark Networks: A Strategic Framework for the Use of Social Network Analysis

by Daniel Cunningham, Sean Everton, Philip Murphy

Overview

Dark networks are the illegal and covert networks (e.g, insurgents, jihadi groups, or drug cartels) that security and intelligence analysts must track and identify to be able to disrupt and dismantle them. This text explains how this can be done by using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method. Written in an accessible manner, it provides an introduction to SNA, presenting tools and concepts, and showing how SNA can inform the crafting of a wide array of strategies for the tracking and disrupting of dark networks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442249448
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/07/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Cunningham is associate faculty for instruction in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA. He is also a research associate in the Defense Analysis Department’s Common Operational Research Environment (CORE) Lab.

Sean Everton is an associate professor in the Department of Defense Analysis and the co-director of the CORE Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA.

Philip Murphy is an assistant professor and the director of the Mixed-methods Evaluation and Training (META) Lab at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the Graduate School of International Policy Studies and a research fellow at the Naval Postgraduate School’s CORE Lab.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
Part I: Introduction to Social Network Analysis
Chapter 1: Social Networks
Chapter 2: Strategic Options for Disrupting Dark Networks
Chapter 3: Collecting, Coding, and Manipulating Social Network Data
Part II: Exploratory Social Network Analysis
Chapter 4: Topographical Features of Dark Networks
Chapter 5: Detecting Subgroups In Networks
Chapter 6: Identifying Central Actors In Networks
Chapter 7: Brokerage within Networks
Chapter 8: Positional Approaches to Analyzing Networks
Part III: Confirmatory Social Network Analysis
Chapter 9: Digging Deeper and Testing Hypotheses
Chapter 10: More Hypothesis Testing: Using Exponential Random Graph Models (Ergms) To Explain Tie Formation
Chapter 11: Longitudinal Analyses of Dark Networks
Part IV: Conclusion
Chapter 12: Lessons Learned
Appendix 1: Data Description And Codebook
Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms
Appendix 3: Analytic Software
References
Index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

Finally! Accessible yet comprehensive, Understanding Dark Networks is a much needed and long overdue guide to analyzing covert, and all other, social networks. This is a must-read for anyone even considering using social network analysis effectively.

Elisa Jayne Bienenstock

Cunningham, Everton, and Murphy’s book is most relevant for practitioners, researchers, or anyone seeking to understand dark networks. Practitioners often worry that SNA is difficult to learn and comprehend, but through Cunningham’s easily accessible writing, anyone can understand and apply it after reading this book. Understanding Dark Networks would also have utility for teaching SNA to undergraduates, graduate, postgraduate students in many fields. The early chapters are accessible to anyone, but the last section requires baseline statistical knowledge. Social Network Analysis represents the future of dark network analysis, ranging from jihadist groups to gangs. All intelligence analysts and researchers would see their research value increase with an in-depth understanding of SNA. Understanding Dark Networks should be an essential read for any practitioner or security scholar interested in learning or furthering their knowledge of SNA.

Small Wars Journal