Why Salafi Jihadist Terrorist Organizations Pledge Allegiance to Al Qaeda or Isis

No one predicted that Salafi-jihadist groups would mushroom after
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York or that they
would pose the biggest threat to global security. Today, no country
is immune from attacks by these jihadist groups. These groups are
not only active in conflict zones but also have the capacity to plot
attacks in the Western world through self-radicalized individuals
or homegrown extremists. In recent years, the trend has been for jihadist groups to align themselves with large terrorist organizations,
usually Al Qaeda (AQ) or ISIS, because these organizations have
been able to survive destructive military campaigns against them
by the world’s superpowers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze
when and why jihadist groups declare loyalty to AQ or ISIS and to
show that when jihadist groups undergo organizational fragmentation, restructuring, or dissolution following disruptive events, they
tend to pledge allegiance to one of these two organizations as a
survival strategy.