Negative ties network-based modeling of terrorist incidents

Abstract

Network structure represents a vital component in wide-ranging aspects of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). One specific type of network that holds promise in understanding the behavior of complex environments such as MDO consists of ones where nodes are combined with both positive ties and negative ties. Positive ties are edges that promote nodes to become similar to each other, or homophilous, while negative ties are edges that promote nodes to be dissimilar to each other. Such a model of influence among the nodes can be used to explain various phenomena happening within a society, modeling peer influences, spread of memes, or to model incidents of violence. In this paper, we propose a Positive-Negative tie network model to analyze terrorism incidents in India, and investigate the role of this network in general network classification and situation understanding contexts.