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New management strategies for detecting social instabilities and promoting social cohesion are neededto reduce aggression-based morbidity and mortality among captive groups of rhesus macaques. This studywas conducted to determine the utility of social network analysis for deciphering patterns of aggression andwounding in rhesus macaques. Over 37,000 observations of affiliative, submissive and aggressive activitieswere collected over a 3-year period on " 1300 rhesus macaques housed in 13.2 ha enclosures. Data also wereanalyzed on management factors such as age/sex composition and matriline configuration that而ghtpromote or reduce aggression in rhesus macaques. Results suggest that social network measures such assubordination degree (social power), displacement fragmentation and groom reciprocity within socialgroups were not only significantly associated with rates of contact aggression and wounding but with theoccurrence of severe aggressive outbreaks, known as cage wars. In addition, groups with a lower proportionof adult females and a more uniform distribution in the number of individuals across matrilines exhibitedhigher social power and lower fragmentation. These data indicate that by manipulating group compositionand matriline configuration of social groups to promote social cohesion and stability, behavioral managersmay be able to reduce the level of aggression and aggression-based morbidity and mortality. These data alsoshow that social network measures are valuable predictors of deleterious aggression and even cage warsindicating that such measures could be used to longitudinally track changes in social dynamics to detectsignificant instabilities, allowing managers to prevent severe outbreaks before they occur in populations ofrhesus macaques and perhaps other non-human primate species.