Use of complexity theory to understand the geographical dynamics of terrorist networks

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Use of complexity theory to understand the geographical dynamics of terrorist networks "
Richard Matthew Medina

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	52893
Doc. No	:	TL22847
Call number	:	‭3370338‬
Main Entry	:	Richard Matthew Medina
Title & Author	:	Use of complexity theory to understand the geographical dynamics of terrorist networks\ Richard Matthew Medina
College	:	The University of Utah
Date	:	2009
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2009
Page No	:	220
Abstract	:	This research uses complexity theory to analyze the Islamist terrorist network with a focus on the emergence of geographic and social self-organization. The multi-space nature of complex systems provides the theoretical and methodological foundation for the research. The methodology uses a dual approach that integrates an empirical terrorist network analysis and a theoretical simulation. The results provide insights and implications for the study of social networks, particularly terrorist networks, in geographic spaces. The empirical analysis develops a terrorist database, using a variety of open sources, as the basis for the social and sociospatial network analyses. Terrorist networks meet the requirements of complex, scale-free systems, thus fostering the use of complexity theoretic metrics for further analysis. The sociospatial analysis of the terrorist network employs newly designed metrics that measure social connections between nodes as geographic distances. The results determine that geographic distance factors are important in the formation of self-organized terrorist network structures. Integrated with the empirical approach to terrorist networks, a rule-based simulation is used to construct a hypothetical terrorist network. The model evaluates nodal attractiveness based on geographic distances and social connectivity. The results of this simulation are confirmed by the empirical analysis to determine that distance and connectivity are crucial factors in terrorist network structure. This research identifies and articulates the connection between social and geographic factors as they influence complex social systems. The connection is hypothesized to be universal in social systems embedded in geographic spaces, which projects this research beyond terrorist networks. Complex systems that are active in multiple spaces experience a convergence of those spaces where accessibility within them is vital to the future state(s) of the systems. The primary conclusions of this research are: (1) geographic distance is important in the structural self-organization of an Islamist terrorist network; (2) social and geographic factors of connectivity and distance, respectively, are interconnected in the terrorist network; and (3) social and sociospatial theory and methods used in this dissertation are valuable in the analysis of various complex social systems embedded in geographic spaces.
Subject	:	Social sciences; Terrorism; Social networks; Complexity theory; Spatial analysis; Geographic information science; Geographic networks; Islamist networks; Geography; Political science; Organizational behavior; 0703:Organizational behavior; 0615:Political science; 0366:Geography
Added Entry	:	The University of Utah