Networks and Network Analysis for Defence and Security

This book offers insights into understanding why infrastructures can and do fail in crisis situations, and how to mitigate these effects. It presents techniques for using big data towards understanding vulnerabilities in complex networks.

Networks and Network Analysis for Defence and Security discusses relevant theoretical frameworks and applications of network analysis in support of the defence and security domains. This book details real world applications of network analysis to support defence and security. Shocks to regional, national and global systems stemming from natural hazards, acts of armed violence, terrorism and serious and organized crime have significant defence and security implications. Today, nations face an uncertain and complex security landscape in which threats impact/target the physical, social, economic and cyber domains. Threats to national security, such as that against critical infrastructures not only stem from man-made acts but also from natural hazards. Katrina (2005), Fukushima (2011) and Hurricane Sandy (2012) are examples highlighting the vulnerability of critical infrastructures to natural hazards and the crippling effect they have on the social and economic well-being of a communityand a nation. With this dynamic and complex threat landscape, network analysis has emerged as a key enabler in supporting defence and security. With the advent of 'big data' and increasing processing power, network analysis can reveal insights with regards to structural and dynamic properties thereby facilitating greater understanding of complex networks, their entities, interdependencies, vulnerabilities to produce insights for creative solutions. This book will be well positioned to inform defence, security and intelligence professionals and researchers with regards to leading methodologies and approaches.

Provides methods for utilizing network analysis towards security concerns Presents techniques for using big data towards understanding vulnerabilities in complex networks Gives insights into understanding why infrastructures can and do fail in crisis situations and how to mitigate these effects Can help prepare inform future major event security operations for large events such as the Olympics Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Anthony Masys is a Defence Scientist for the Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada, Centre for Security Science. As Scientific Advisor to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for both the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and G8/G20 Summits, Dr Masys has had significant influence in the development of a whole of government Major Events Security Framework. The MESF is a collaborative planning environment that is rooted in the principles of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. Dr Masys has a BSc in Physics and MSc in Underwater Acoustics and PhD in Sociology. His research interests focus on complex socio-technical systems, human error, safety culture, systems thinking, risk, crisis and disaster management, knowledge management and organizational learning. He has published extensively in the domains of physics and the social sciences.
His recent book: 'Opening the Black Box of Human Error' focuses on the opaque' veneer of blamism' that characterizes pilot/human error and obscures the fact that it is comprised of a network of alliances. Through the lens of Actor Network Theory and drawing upon Systems Thinking, Complexity Theory, Psychology and the science of networks, Dr Masys describes a landscape of inherent relationality and a space of possibilities. Opening the Black Box of Human Error presents a new framework for exploring complex socio-technical systems revealing a de-centered accident aetiology residing within a network of heterogeneous elements characterized as the hybrid collectif' (Callon and Law, 1995). The analysis sheds light on a problem space in which it is difficult to separate human and non-human (technological) actors, highlighting as Latour (1994) argues, that every human interaction is socio-technical'. This work should be especially useful to professionals in Human Factors with an interest in complex socio- technical systems and accident aetiology."

Inhalt

Network Analysis in Criminal Intelligence.- Identifying mafia Bosses from Meeting Attendance.- Macrosocial Network Analysis: the Case of Transnational Drug Trafficking.- Policing the Hackers by Hacking them: Studying Online Deviants in IRC Chat Rooms.- Why Terror Networks are Dissimilar: How Structure Relates to Functions.- Social Network Analysis Applied to Criminal Networks: Recent Developments in Dutch Law Enforcement.- The Networked Mind- Collective Identities and the Cognitive-Affective Nature of Conflict.- Conflict Cessation and the Emergence of Weapons Supermarkets.- A Conspiracy of Bastards?.- Decision Support through Strongest Path Method Risk Analysis.- Critical Infrastructure and Vulnerability- a Relational Analysis through Actor Network Theory.- Dealing with Complexity: Thinking about Networks and the Comprehensive Approach .