Key Findings

Based on a social network analysis of terrorist enlistment reasons, Abderraouf Ben Habib Jdey and Faker Ben Abdelaziz Boussora, both of al-Qaeda, share their enlistment reasons of religious influence and their strength within the network. They are the most powerful terrorists within the social network based on my analysis of the network's centrality measures. Both Abderraouf Ben Habib Jdey and Faker Ben Abdelaziz Boussora had the highest degree and closeness centrality measures, and a medium range of betweenness measures, characterizing them as the most powerful nodes within the social network. While Michael McLaughlin and Roy Paul Willey from the Budweiser Brigage of the IRA and Ralph P. Bock from the New Order have the lowest centrality measures, meaning that they are likely the least powerful members of the principle component of this social network. Michael McLaughlin and Ralph P. Bock joined their terrorist organization as a result of a recruiter, while Roy Paul Willey joined his terrorist organization as a result of religious influence. These three terrorists are the least powerful members of the network because they have the lowest degree and closeness centrality measures and a betweenness centrality measure of zero. However, these findings are based on the network actually being connected through a relationship, instead of an attribute. Social network analysis is a great analytical tool, however this method does not work well with an analysis of attributes. I recommend using this tool to analyze actual relationships between networks, instead of the attributes that make up a group’s members.

This is a visual representation of the central component of the social network. The individual nodes are color coded by their specific terrorist organization and their reason for enlisting with their terrorist organization is represented by the shape of the node.