legitimation definition
legitimation. . To legitimate something means to make it just or lawful. Although rallying support is distinct from the concept of legitimation, these two concepts are easily conflated in a multilateral institution that aims for a consensus-building approach to solving world problems. State participation in UN procedures has had the impact of strengthening the UN’s moral authority, and of leading many states to interpret UN approval of military action as conferring legitimacy. Claude speculates with the notion that this role of legitimator may have emerged as an outgrowth of the failure of the UN to fulfill the role for which it was founded, that of actually preventing aggression and war between member states. This has led to the evolution of UN norms in a direction that ultimately led it to be seen by many as the main legitimator of the use of force.161