Understanding the Complexity of Terrorist Networks

TL;DR

This paper applies complexity science and network analysis to terrorist organizations, exploring their emergent properties and how disruption strategies affect their organizational fitness.

Contribution

It introduces non-linear dynamical systems modeling to analyze terrorist network structures and their emergent properties, providing new insights into network disruption effects.

Findings

Terrorist networks exhibit emergent properties like centrality and hierarchy.

Disruption strategies can increase or decrease organizational fitness.

Analysis of the 9-11 hijackers network illustrates these concepts.

Abstract

Complexity science affords a number of novel tools for examining terrorism, particularly network analysis and NK-Boolean fitness landscapes. The following paper explores various aspects of terrorist networks which can be illuminated through applications of non-linear dynamical systems modeling to terrorist network structures. Of particular interest are some of the emergent properties of terrorist networks as typified by the 9-11 hijackers network, properties of centrality, hierarchy and distance, as well as ways in which attempts to disrupt the transmission of information through terrorist networks may be expected to produce greater or lesser levels of fitness in those organizations.