Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract This chapter draws on both parts of the book to better understand the research problem identified at the outset: why is it that crises of legitimacy in multilateral governance, despite the benefits for any organization of having legitimacy, sometimes do not affect the targeted organizations or—contrary to received predictions—even strengthen their capacity to rule? It synthesizes the main contributions across chapters and highlights how they address existing gaps in research on legitimacy in global governance. The chapter revisits the theoretical contribution that helps to understand how crises affect the strength of multilateral institutions in both positive and negative ways. The chapter then moves on to broader implications of these results beyond the empirical confines of this study, pertaining to the problems in both politics and political science that the study was designed to address. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for existing literature, future research opportunities, and political debates on the liberal world order, human challenges in global politics, and the proper role of legitimacy, as analyzed in this research field, in political discourses and practice.