ABSTRACT Legitimation has been conceived mostly as an exercise in justification by international/regional organisations needing to convince audiences of the rightfulness of their behaviour. What we could call the external dimension of legitimation. The internal dimension, what happens between an organisation and its stakeholders, remains understudied. Analysing internal legitimation practices becomes important in the context of the opening-up of international organisations. Aside from the EU, however, evidence is still lacking as to the nature and extent of this opening-up, and the role of non-state actors (NSAs) in this context. The article seeks to fill part of this void using the OAS as a case study. It examines actors' practices during three central moments in the legitimation process. At each stage, OAS' legitimation-seeking practices and NSAs' legitimation/de-legitimation practices are analysed. The study reveals that NSAs have responded positively to the opening-up by the OAS despite tensions among member States.

中文翻译：

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区域组织合法化的动力：美洲国家组织和非国家行为者

摘要 合法化主要被认为是国际/区域组织需要说服观众其行为的正当性的一种证明活动。我们可以称之为合法化的外部维度。内部维度，即组织与其利益相关者之间发生的事情，仍未得到充分研究。在国际组织开放的背景下，分析内部合法化实践变得很重要。然而，除了欧盟之外，关于这种开放的性质和程度以及非国家行为者 (NSA) 在这方面的作用仍然缺乏证据。本文试图使用美洲国家组织作为案例研究来填补这一空白。它考察了行动者在合法化过程中三个核心时刻的实践。在每个阶段，OAS' 分析了寻求合法化的做法和国家安全局的合法化/去合法化做法。研究表明，尽管成员国之间关系紧张，但国家安全局对美洲国家组织的开放做出了积极回应。