Skip to main content

Social Network Analysis to Combat Terrorism: 2015 Paris Attacks

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Social Networks ((LNSN))

Abstract

A series of attacks shook Paris in the year 2015. They were well-coordinated attacks by the terrorist organization ISIL. An in-depth analysis of the attacks is presented in this chapter. This work is divided into several stages and every stage progresses into the next stage by adding more information useful for the upcoming stage. Initially, data about terrorists is gathered from newspapers and online bulletins. The collected data is then transformed into a network which is created using an adjacency matrix. Strength of the relationship between the involved terrorists is also factored in while creating the network. To gather insight into this network, centrality measures are calculated. This analysis brought forward interesting facts such as who were the most important person(s) in the network and removing which person(s) would cripple the network. The final phase of this process was a Twitter analysis of the Paris attacks based on four keywords related to the attack. This further revealed a few facts which were unreported in major newspapers. Some conclusions and understanding of the attacks after an in-depth data analysis of Paris attacks are also reported.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. J. Kostov, France honors victims of Paris terrorist attacks. WSJ. (2017). https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-honors-victims-of-paris-terrorist-attacks-1448635450

  2. Injuries from Paris attacks will take long to heal. Cbsnews.com. (2017). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/injuries-from-paris-attacks-will-take-long-to-heal/

  3. France, Russia strike Islamic state; new suspect sought. Reuters. (2017). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-shooting-idUSKCN0T22IU20151117

  4. Unravelling the connections among the Paris attackers. Nytimes.com. (2017). https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/15/world/europe/manhunt-for-paris-attackers.html?_r=0

  5. A. Afonso, Social network analysis of terrorist networks. Orgnet.com. (2017). http://www.orgnet.com/hijackers.html

  6. S.A. Koschade, A social network analysis of Jemaah Islamiyah: the applications to counter-terrorism and intelligence. Stud. Conflict Terror 29(6), 559–575 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. R.C. van der Hulst, Introduction to social network analysis (SNA) as an investigative tool. Trends Organ Crime 12(2), 101–121 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ressler, S., Social network analysis as an approach to combat terrorism: past, present, and future research, homeland security affairs 2, (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. A. Perliger, A. Pedahzur, Social network analysis in the study of terrorism and political violence. Political Sci Politics 44(1), 45–50 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. R. Medina, Social network analysis: a case study of the Islamist terrorist network. Secur. J. 27(1), 97–121 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. B. Bader, T. Schuster, Expatriate social networks in terrorism-endangered countries: an empirical analysis in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. J. Int. Manag. 21(1), 63–77 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. R. Lindelauf, H. Hamers, B. Husslage, Game theoretic centrality analysis of terrorist networks: the cases of Jemaah Islamiyah and Al Qaeda, CentER Discussion Paper Series No. 2011–107, (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  13. P. Fellman, R. Wright, Modeling terrorist networks, complex systems at the mid-range, the intelligencer. J. U.S. Int. Stud. 14(1), (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Connecting the Dots—Social network analysis of 9–11 terror network. Orgnet.com. (2017). http://www.orgnet.com/tnet.html

  15. N. Koochakzadeh, A. Sarraf, K. Kianmehr, J.G. Rokne, R. Alhajj, Netdriller: a powerful social network analysis tool, in Proceedings of IEEE ICDM. 1235–1238. (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  16. An introduction to text mining using twitter streaming API and Python//Adil Moujahid//Data analytics and more. Adilmoujahid.com. (2017). http://adilmoujahid.com/posts/2014/07/twitter-analytics/

  17. Web of terror from Paris to Brussels. Mail Online. (2017). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3506304/Web-terror-Paris-Brussels.html

  18. J. Klausen, Tweeting the Jihad: social media networks of western foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Stud Conflict and Terror 38(1), 1–22 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Animesh Gupta .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Appendix 1: Adjacency matrix

Appendix 1: Adjacency matrix

Table 7
Table 8

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gupta, A., Özyer, T., Rokne, J., Alhajj, R. (2019). Social Network Analysis to Combat Terrorism: 2015 Paris Attacks. In: Özyer, T., Bakshi, S., Alhajj, R. (eds) Social Networks and Surveillance for Society. Lecture Notes in Social Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78256-0_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78256-0_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78255-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78256-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics