Understanding the structure of terrorist networks

This paper presents the study of structural cohesion which is discussed in Social Network Analysis, but can also useful in other important application areas including investigative data mining for destabilising terrorist networks. Structural cohesion is defined as the number of actors who, if removed from a group, would disconnect it. We discuss structural cohesion concepts, such as cliques, n-cliques, n-clans and k-plexes to determine familiarity, robustness and reachability within subgroups of the 9/11 terrorist network. We also propose a methodology of detecting critical regions in covert networks; and then compare them to the topological characteristics of those networks.

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