Page 161 - 201901

Vo1. 37, No. 1, January/February 2019

115 Acculturation Strategies and Identification with Terrorist
Organizations

ZHU Yongbiao and TONG Yan
[Abstract] The identity construction process within a terrorist organization develops
through three stages: self-identity establishment of individual terrorists, the
construction of inner organization homogeneity and terrorist activities organized and
carried out in unison. Contradictions over the choices of group acculturation strategy
inside and outside the terrorist organization have been running through the whole
process of identity construction. Specifically, on the first stage, when potential
terrorists’ attempts to seek identification in the mainstream culture fail, they will fall
back on joining a terrorist organization. On the second stage, terrorist organizations
will build their own organizational culture on the basis of their religious culture and
use every means imaginable to deepen their members’ identification with and
recognition of the organizational culture. Conversely, people and groups outside the
terrorist organizations can hardly identify with such organizational culture. On the
third stage, the intensified contradictions over choosing acculturation strategy for
groups within and without terrorist organizations will eventually prompt terrorist
organizations to launch terrorist activities with concerted efforts from their members.
As the most notorious and influential terrorist organization, Islamic State is taken as
a typical case in this paper to elaborate on the aforementioned identification process
within terrorist organizations. This paper has found that the success of Islamic State
is closely related to the smooth implementation of its acculturation strategy. Its
setbacks in Afghanistan have largely been caused by the “misapplication” of its
acculturation strategy in that Islamic State could neither contend with Taliban nor
settle the cross-cultural conflicts facing its own organization. Therefore, in the
combat against such violent extremist forces as Islamic State, it is of vital
importance and great value to pay heed to the influence of acculturation strategy and
adopt targeted countermeasures.
[Keywords] terrorist organizations, identification, acculturation strategy, identity
frustration, Islamic State
[Authors] ZHU Yongbiao, Associate Professor of School of Politics and
International Relations and Institute for Central Asian Studies, Director of Research
Center for the Belt and Road and Center for Afghanistan Studies, Lanzhou University;
TONG Yan, Graduate Student, School of Politics and International Relations,
Lanzhou University (Lanzhou, 730000).

134 Rebellion Tactics of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the
Northern Uganda Conflicts
YAN Lin and HE Qin

[Abstract] The conflicts in northern Uganda are, in essence, a scramble for power
and interests among different ethnic groups. The Lord’s Resistance Army in
northern Uganda has begun actively rebelling against the government since 1986,
and continued to circulate across the borders of the Republic of South Sudan, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The Resistance
Army’s rebellious activities and its atrocities have not only posed serious threats to

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