This post was written by Alis Wang Academics at West Point’s Network Science Center recently published a paper introducing a new algorithm developed to help officials more effectively dismantle terrorist and insurgent networks. Their work focuses on how organizations regenerate their leadership cadres following an attack and argues that “shaping” networks to maximize network-wide centrality… Read more »
The careful study of conflict requires access to data to make substantive conclusions. Often, because of the nature of working in conflict zones or with government secrets, that data can be very difficult to acquire for academics and open-source analysts. The high barriers to entry for scholars and practitioners made serious unclassified research difficult to… Read more »
This post was written by Alis Wang Gun violence has been a vexing problem for law enforcement and policy makers for decades. This is partially because of the difficulty of predicting which individuals will perpetrate the next mass shooting. Big data, however, could give us a way to objectively analyze this issue and find ways… Read more »
Film piracy is one of the largest economic threats to the US motion pictures industry, costing US movie studios over $6 billion a year and the global film industry more than $18 billion a year. About three-fifths of this loss is due to DVD piracy while the other two-fifths can be attributed to online piracy…. Read more »
In the past few years, Iran has used its cargo line, IRISL (Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines), to evade international trade sanctions in place to prevent the movement of illicit cargo to and from Iran. The shipping line has been blacklisted by the US, the EU, and the UN, but IRISL continues to use ships… Read more »
Praescient Analyst Dominic Lisanti published a piece with Critical Threats Project Analyst Katherine Zimmerman on the changing landscape of transnational jihad. In particular, they focus on the new battlefront of Mali. They write that the arrest of two Americans headed for West Africa “may reveal a shift in popular destinations for those looking to participate… Read more »
In the aftermath of last month’s presidential election, the media has increasingly focused on both campaigns’ use of big data technology to track, target, and persuade potential voters. According to Ethan Roeder, Data Director for the Obama campaign, “what’s really new in politics today is not the data itself but how campaigns make sense of… Read more »
On this day, December 7, 1941, two waves of Japanese planes bombed the United States of America; 183 planes hit Ford Island and 170 planes hit the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. This great nation suffered the loss of a total of 2,350 people. Also, a total of 9 ships were sunk, and 21… Read more »
In February 2006, Allan Lichtman — a political scientist and professor at American University who specializes in predicting US presidential elections — surveyed the country’s political landscape, looking at a very particular set of issues from a narrow angle: pure performance, the only thing that influences voter decision. A year earlier, a contentious fight over… Read more »
The McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University is committed to advancing leadership based on security, economic opportunity, freedom and human dignity in the United States and around the world. To focus on innovative ways to overcome challenges in the fields of humanitarian affairs, human rights, and national security; the Institute started the… Read more »