Research On Social Network Analysis Techniques For Arms Trade Network

Social network analysis (Social Network Analysis, SNA) method can be used to analyze network from many different angles, including centrality analysis, cohesion subgroup analysis and core-periphery structure analysis. In recent years, domestic and foreign scholars have applied the social network analysis in many fields of study. Relationship of arms exports and imports between countries constitute the world's arms trade network. Arms trade is a special world trade, with social network analysis method to analyze and mine useful information, has a strong theoretical and practical value.The main work include:1. Data acquisition: With Web crawler program from the military forum, social networking sites and news pages and other trade-related pages to download weapons news and save to local, and text analysis to extract relations. Extract relationship, times and transfer amount of arms exports and imports between countries from SIPRI arms transfers database from 2001-2010, and then aggregated into the 172 * 172 adjacency matrix, to show 172 countries participate in the arms trade situation.2. Build arms trade network: country-node relationship between arms imports and exports between the countries to have the edge, as the network side of the transfer of the amount of weight, build arms trade network matrix for the next social network analysis. And generate a directed weighted graph, intuitive picture of the world arms trade situation.3. Designed a algorithm to discovery key node in directed weighted graph based on the local out-centrality, and another based on the local in-centrality, and applied to analysis the arms trade network, for identifying the key arms export and import countries. Analyze the arms trade network with centrality analysis, identified the countries with higher degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality.4. Analyzed the arms trade network with cliques, k-plex and k-core analysis, to identify "small groups" with high cohesion degree . Designed a algorithm to find k-core, by comparing the experiments to prove the validity of the algorithm.5. Analyzed the relationship between arms trade network and the national war network, to find the relationship between the degree of kinship of arms trade and the likelihood of war, and the impact of war on the arms trade network structure changes.By analyzing arms trade network with social network analysis, to identify the world's arms trade activities in the major importing countries and their sources, the main exporting countries and their flow and close trade relations between the countries' small groups. It can provide us a more comprehensive understanding of the world arms trade situation. Through the relationship analysis between arms trade and war, arms trade network changes in the structure maybe forecast possible national or regional war.