...relations scholarship prompted renewed interest in the role of legitimacy in world politics. It is now fairly widely accepted that states and international organizations seek legitimacy, routinely engage in symbolic politics and are more likely to cooperate with other legitimate actors. Yet, as Ian Hurd notes in the opening chapter of this impressive book, amid all the recent talk of 'legitimacy' there has been no 'full-fledged exploration of the concept and its operation' (p. 2). Accordingly, Hurd's key goal in this book is to 'ground' constructivist empirical research by introducing 'workable concept of legitimacy' (pp.1-2).

The theory of legitimacy that Hurd propounds (Chapters 2-3) is applied through three case studies that explore the politics of the United Nations Security Council. The case design is elegantly constructed to chart the life-cycle of legitimacy from 'creation to reproduction to delegitimation'...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.




More articles from Melbourne Journal of Politics
European Security after 9/11.(Book review), January 01, 2007

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