Legitimacy, Power, and the Symbolic Life of the UN Security Council

TL;DRAbstract

The Charter of the United Nations gives the Security Council enormous formal powers, but it. does not give it direct control of the tools with which to enact those powers. As many have noted, much of the power of the Council is contingent on the voluntary coop eration of states, measured in variables such as the contribution to peacekeeping missions and the national enforcement of sanctions re gimes.1 It is often also noted that this voluntary compliance depends also on states' perceptions of the legitimacy of the Council and its ac tions.2 However, the central role that legitimacy plays in supporting the power of the Council is rarely investigated. After Inis Claude's state ment of the matter in 1966, the issue has not been revisited.3 The contingent nature of Council authority means its effect in the international system is both broader and narrower than the formal pow ers of the UN Charter?narrower because the Cold War stunted the de velopment of the four-policemen idea, but broader

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