Most analyses of legitimacy and legitimation in international organizations (IOs) focus on the perceptions of external audiences. In so doing, they fail to consider self-legitimation, where an IO undertakes legitimation internally, as a way of developing and reinforcing its identity. Moreover, most studies of IO legitimacy neglect the fact that IO identities are rarely uniform and instead are multiple and conflicting. I address these omissions by examining self-legitimation in three IOs—the UN, NATO, and the World Bank. These organizations are both operational and normative actors, and both institutions dependent on member states and autonomous bodies with independent expertise and capacities. These identities sometimes dictate contradictory goals and practices, forcing the organizations to violate the principles and activities considered appropriate to one of their identities, thus complicating legitimation. Based upon extensive fieldwork and drawing on a range of disciplines, this paper proposes a novel theory of IO self-legitimation: I argue that the need for self-legitimation depends on the degree of identity cohesion and identity hierarchy of the organization. I identify two temporal dimensions of self-legitimation, three categories of self-legitimation practices, and three broader repercussions of self-legitimation, ultimately showing that self-legitimation is a necessary and constitutive activity for IOs.

中文翻译：

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“镜子，镜子在墙上：”国际组织的自我合法化

国际组织（IOs）对合法性和合法性的大多数分析都集中在外部受众的观念上。这样一来，他们就不会考虑自我合法化，而IO会在内部进行合法化，以此来发展和加强其身份。而且，大多数有关IO合法性的研究都忽略了以下事实：IO身份很少是统一的，而是多种多样且相互冲突的。我通过研究三个IO（联合国，北约和世界银行）的自我合法性来解决这些遗漏。这些组织既是业务行为者，又是规范行为者，机构都依赖于具有独立专业知识和能力的成员国和自治机构。这些身份有时会指示相互矛盾的目标和做法，迫使组织违反被认为适合其身份之一的原则和活动，从而使合法化变得复杂。基于广泛的现场工作并借鉴了一系列学科，本文提出了一种新的IO自我合法性理论：我认为自我合法性的需求取决于组织的身份凝聚力和身份等级。我确定了自我合法性的两个时间维度，三个类别的自我合法性实践以及三个更广泛的自我合法性影响，最终表明自我合法性是IO的必要和构成性活动。我认为自我合法性的需要取决于组织的身份凝聚力和身份等级。我确定了自我合法性的两个时间维度，三个类别的自我合法性实践以及三个更广泛的自我合法性影响，最终表明自我合法性是IO的必要和构成性活动。我认为自我合法性的需要取决于组织的身份凝聚力和身份等级。我确定了自我合法性的两个时间维度，三个类别的自我合法性实践以及三个更广泛的自我合法性影响，最终表明自我合法性是IO的必要和构成性活动。