Social Network Analysis, Research, and Practice Certificate - Curriculum 239

Program Officer

David Hawk

Code DA, Root Hall, Room 100A

[phone], DSN 756-1019 

[e-mail]

Academic Associate

Sean Everton, Ph.D.

Code DA, Root Hall

[phone], DSN 756-2709 

[e-mail]

Brief Overview

The new ESRs (educational skills requirements) for SOF graduates includes a focus on transnational dark networks. Since 2007 the CORE Lab, which is embedded in the Defense Analysis Department, has focused on offering students the opportunity to develop the analytical skills for disrupting dark networks. The purpose of this certificate program is to recognize students who have developed such skills. By completing the program they will acquire the theoretical and methodological tools for applying social network analysis to situations that many will encounter in the field after they graduate.

Convenes

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

Program Length

Six quarters

Outcomes

Provide students with social network analysis’s methodological, theoretical, and analytical tools for:

1. Tracking and disrupting dark networks (e.g., terrorist networks, drug cartels, violent extremist organizations)
2. Enhancing the robustness of light networks (e.g., Counter WMD, SOCOM, Civil Affairs)
3. Examining key regional and global networks at the forefront of great power competition in order to improve operational effectiveness
4. Influencing resistance (social) movements (e.g., insurgencies, social revolutions)
5. Deriving “narratives” from social media networks (e.g., Twitter, YouTube)
6. Fusing social network analysis with spatial and temporal analyses because social networks operate spatially and are dynamic in nature
7. Accounting for the complexity of social networks in decision-making by considering non-linear, emergent, and evolutionary processes in real-world contexts

Certificate Requirements

Students will be required to take three or more classes that are methodologically and/or theoretically related to social network analysis.

Students will need to take at least 2 of the following 3 courses:

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
DA3610	Visual Analytics		4	0
DA4600	Dark Networks		4	0
DA4610	Dynamic Network Analysis		4	0

DA4610 - Dynamic Network Analysis (R for SNA)

And at least 1 of the following 2 courses:

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
DA3721	Networks and Religion		4	0
DA4106	Trust, Influence and Networks		4	0