Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Jennifer Taw

Abstract

This thesis examines the social processes in which legitimacy is constructed, contested, and mobilized, placing particular emphasis on the struggle over political authority in the context of contemporary conflict. Drawing upon ideas from constructivist theory, this work seeks to put forth a unique understanding of legitimacy in international politics. That is, an understanding of legitimacy dependent on recognition not simply because actors need to persuade others of their rightful status, but because it is recognition itself that produces the social conditions required for authority to be effective. As such, political authority is contingent on these processes of validation that occur among a variety of actors and audiences, processes that also continuously produce the boundaries of rightful action, obligation, and political identity. This work will then apply this conceptual framework to the Sudan Civil Conflict, benefitting analytically from the exposure to legitimacy processes that is made possible due to the weak institutional anchorage of narratives and their visible contestation and weak institutional anchorage that is true in this case.

Download

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

Share

COinS