Practical Issues and Algorithms for Analyzing Terrorist Networks 1

In social network analysis, graphs are used to model relationships between actors or participants in a social setting. Each node or vertex in the graph represents a participant or actor. Each link or edge represents a connection or relationship between two participants. A variety of graph algorithms have been developed to analyze the structure of social networks and to assess the roles or importance of the individual players. Since the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center, social network analysis has emerged as a potential vehicle for modeling and analyzing the structure of terrorist networks [10, 15].