Study title

In an era of increasing political challenges to global and regional organizations, it is crucial to understand how they claim legitimacy and how successful they are in this respect. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the sources and consequences of legitimation in most regional organizations worldwide. In this project, we thus map the legitimation strategies of a sample of 28 organizations between 1980 and 2019. Regional organizations in the sample: Africa - Organization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) - Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC) - Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) - East African Community (EAC) - Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - Southern African Customs Union (SACU) - Southern African Development Community (SADC) Asia-Pacific - Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Pacific Island Forum (PIF) - South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Americas - Andean Pact/Andean Community (CAN) - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) - Common Market of the South (Mercosur) - Organization of American States (OAS) - Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) - Central American Integration System (SICA) Europe - Council of Europe (COE) - European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - European Union (EU) - Nordic Council (NordC) Cross-Regional - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - League of Arab States (LoAS) - Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)