Focusing on the interaction between the Moroccan state and Amazigh activists, this paper explores the conditions under which ethnic movements become successful in transforming official politics of national identity. In 2001, the Moroccan state, for the first time, declared its recognition of "Berberness" as a principal element of the Moroccan national culture and founded 'the Royal Institute of the Berber Culture' (IRCAM). The Institute was charged with doing research on different aspects of Berber culture and preparing school textbooks to teach elementary school students the standardized Berber language. These initiatives represented a dramatic reversal of the official definition of national identity and a major victory for Amazigh activists in their long struggle for cultural recognition. The establishment of IRCAM represented the first substantial change in the state's attitude towards its Berber speaking population, from a policy of subtle neglect to explicit recognition and support. The main objective of this paper is to call attention away from state-centric analyses of policy change in authoritarian contexts and to underline an ethnic movement's capabilities in affecting policy. This paper underlines Amazigh activists' specific strategies, in particular their use of personal networks of influence to negotiate with the state center and strategic concessions to placate the state, in explaining their policy success. The activists' strategies were in line with Moroccan political traditions and were formulated based on specific expectations about the monarch's behavior vis-?-vis emerging challenges to his conventional policies. The previous acts of selective cooptation of different social movements by the palace set important precedents in determining the boundaries of legitimate action for the Amazigh activists. This paper also emphasizes how the interaction between the Moroccan state and the Amazigh activists has been a mutually transformative one and discusses how the establishment of IRCAM worked to transform the Amazigh movement in ways unintended by activists. This paper is based on in-depth interviews with Amazigh activists, publications of Amazigh activist organizations as well as major Moroccan newspapers and magazines between 1995 and 2010.