Existential Motivations in the Lord's Resistance Army’s Continuing Conflict

This article argues that although the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) may have begun its war for instrumental goals, such as to create political change, these goals have largely been replaced by existential motivations, in the sense that the LRA organization fights in order to continue providing security and a vocation to its members, which would be lost by a return to wider society. It is posited that the factor allowing for this turn from instrumental to existential motivation is that the LRA organization has effectively separated itself from wider society and created an autonomous political community. The implication of this is that it may be necessary to first reintegrate members of the LRA into the greater Acholi and Ugandan community and then to find a political settlement. The article also discusses lessons learned for dealing with other existentially motivated armed groups, such as Al Qaeda.