Terrorism - Can SNA save the world?

The whole world is reeling under the threat of insecurity over terrorism. Is there any point for guessing this? What is so special about this blog then? Will it be worth reading? Yes. At a time like this - recession coupled with terrorism, if I say that there is a tool to map the terrorist network and track them - you would be thinking that I am kidding. Definitely not. It is a reality. Social Networking Analysis (SNA in short - not to reduce the pain of typing it time and again but in a noble cause to save some memory :-) ) can provide us a solution in mapping a terrorist network.

This blog, as every MBA is obliged to do, is organized and structured into two parts.
Part 1: Theoretical ideas to back SNA as a tool to map terrorist networks
Part 2: Example of a mapping methodology means - Echelon

Part 1:

Determining the key players of a terrorist network is still a major challenge for intelligence agencies. However, even tougher is to track their network, even if these key agents have been identified. Is it humanly possible to interpret an entire network based on very few agents’ information? One possible solution that has been discussed by North & Macal, 2005 is the net breaker model which uses agent based social modeling to identify a potential space of networks. The space of alternatives will provide valuable insights regarding the network under consideration. The detailed report, which provides an interesting go through can be downloaded from the following link. (http://jtac.uchicago.edu/conferences/05/resources/NetBreaker_presentation.pdf)

The next idea that I discuss here is that of Steve Ressler. (www.hsaj.org/pages/volume2/issue2/pdfs/2.2.8.pdf)

In this paper, he starts by discussing the threat of terrorism and the basic benefits of SNA in analyzing real world networks and their incredible impacts. The exactness of the network can be obtained by SNA, provided the data is available and hence the criticality of SNA lies outside the SNA and in data collection. Then the author proceeds to discuss about the modeling methodologies and the necessity of expertise to interpret the results of applying these models on the data gathered. The most important aspect of this work is that Steve brings in a lot of published articles for references which have added considerable value to the research on this topic.

Part 2: Echelon(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON)

Echelon, is the signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated by AUSCANZUKUS (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, UK). Echelon is capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks and microwave links. This serves as a tool to map a network of any particular individual and thus provides the intelligence experts with a platform to perform the analysis to gain insights into potential terrorist networks.

But the catch, terrorist organizations are strong social networks on their own. At the moment, it is the usage of social networks by building strong ties based on common fundamentals that are driving stronger terrorist organizations. It should be possible by better application of existing methodologies and creating new models to aid in increased accuracy of mapping networks and thus providing valuable insights into cracking down terrorist activities.