‘Legitimacy’ is commonly cited as one of three fundamental mechanisms of social control within both domestic politics and international society. However, despite growing attention to the legitimacy of global governance, little consideration has been given to the identity of the political communities that must grant legitimacy to an international organisation or to the conditions under which legitimacy is valuable for the functioning of that organisation. In raising and responding to these questions, this article rejects the argument that actors must gain legitimacy among all subject social constituencies within their political realm of action. Instead, the importance of legitimacy within a particular constituency is a variable. The article labels this variable a ‘legitimacy nexus’ and outlines five factors that are hypothesised to contribute to calibrating a legitimacy nexus. The plausibility of the proposed schema is explored through discussion of the role of legitimacy in the trade regime and analysis of the origins of the International Labour Organization's anomalous tripartite representative structure.

The legitimation of international organisations : examining the identity of the communities that grant legitimacy

The protection of domestic populations by international institutions is both an anomaly and an enduring practice in international relations. It is an anomaly because in a system of sovereign states, the welfare of individuals and groups falls outside traditional definitions of state interest. Yet since the evolution of the nation-state system, collectivities of states have sought to protect religious minorities, dynastic families, national minorities, ethnic communities, individual citizens and refugees. Cronin explains this phenomenon by developing a theory that links international stability with the progress of a cohesive international order. His book examines how states attempt to provide for international stability by creating International Protection Regimes - multilateral institutions designed to protect clearly defined classes of people within sovereign states. It argues that in the aftermath of major systemic changes states try to create international orders by regulating the relationship between governments and their populations, particularly in newly-formed and reorganized states.

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Institutions for the common good

1. The international order on trial 2. The road to Paris 3. Versailles: a study in arrogance 4. The retreat to utopia 5. Manchuria and the triumph of non-recognition 6. The rise of Hitler 7. Challenge of the dictators 8. The illusive response 9. Munich: the continuing escape from reality 10. The road to Prague 11. The Soviet quest for collective security 12. The coming of war.

The Versailles Treaty and Its Legacy: The Failure of the Wilsonian Vision

Democratic Vanguardism: Modernity, Intervention, and the Making of the Bush Doctrine

This article examines the influence of Woodrow Wilson's rhetoric of national self‐determination on the Egyptian nationalist movement in 1918–20 as a case study in the impact of the Wilsonian Moment on emerging anticolonial movements. It traces the impact of Wilsonian discourse on Egyptian expectations for the postwar international order, on the way they envisioned their place within it, and on the rhetoric and actions they utilized to fulfil these expectations. It concludes that the experiences of the Wilsonian Moment radicalized Egyptian national demands, transformed the Anglo‐Egyptian colonial relationship, and left a legacy of disappointment and bitterness among Egyptians towards liberal internationalism. The article ends by contextualizing the Egyptian case within the surge of anticolonial nationalism in the wake of World War I, and positing the Wilsonian Moment as a watershed in the transformation of colonial relations.

The Wilsonian Moment and the Rise of Anticolonial Nationalism: The Case of Egypt

Power and Principle: Armed Intervention in Wilsonian Foreign Policy@@@Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919

Arthur Walworth

Papers

Power and Principle: Armed Intervention in Wilsonian Foreign Policy@@@Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919