text: Understanding the Strategic Context
  should use all instruments of its national power to prove its legitimacy, to defeat the insurgency, and to
  reduce the likelihood of another crisis emerging.
  1-28. Legitimacy is essential to understanding the political variable in an insurgency. Who a population
  accepts as legitimate is dependent on the norms and values within that particular population. Legitimacy
  can change as a society evolves and groups or individuals change their conceptualization of who they are
  and what authority they accept. Sometimes large changes, such as the American War of Independence or
  the unification of Germany in 1871, create a change in group identity and accepted authority. Sometimes
  group identity changes by slow evolution, as is the case with the European Union. However, at the core,
  who a group accepts as providing legitimate authority to govern their actions is that group’s legitimate
  authority. (See paragraphs 2-16 through 2-19 for information on the political variable.)
  1-29. Legitimacy provides willing acceptance of authority and thus requires fewer resources to enforce its
  authority than illegitimacy. Most populations are controlled through a combination of consent and coercion.
  The host-nation government generally needs some level of legitimacy among the population in order to
  retain power. This provides some level of consent. Legitimacy is an indicator of the extent to which
  systems of authority, decisions, and conduct are accepted by the local population. Political legitimacy of a
  government determines the degree to which the population will voluntarily or passively comply with the
  decisions and rules issued by a governing authority. Legitimacy determines the transaction costs of political
  and governmental power. Low legitimacy may breed contempt on the part of the population and may
  require extensive prodding and incentives by the government to secure compliance of the population; high
  legitimacy generally invites compliance by the population and therefore requires less effort by the
  government to ensure compliance. An illegitimate government’s only method of controlling its population
  is coercion, which can be resource intensive. A legitimate government has to use coercion for policing
  power, but its population, in general, sees the rules and directions of its government as intrinsically correct.
  A population will follow a legitimate government’s rules and norms passively, and those who break those
  rules or norms are disapproved of by the society. Who the population sees as a legitimate authority is a
  central issue of a counterinsurgency.
  1-30. All population groups are controlled by some combination of consent and coercion. Some
  governments may use a range of coercive methods to control the population. Coercive methods can damage
  legitimacy if the methods cannot be justified under the values and norms of the population. However,
  counterinsurgents should not think of coercion and consent as counter forces to one another. If coercive
  acts by the government or insurgency are justifiable under the norms and values of the population, those
  acts do not necessarily undermine the legitimacy of the government or host nation. Acts by both the
  government and the insurgency must be viewed from the perspective of the population experiencing those
  acts and not from an outside perspective that will bring its own bias to viewing actions of the host
  government or insurgency.
  1-31. The struggle for legitimacy with the population is typically a central issue of an insurgency. The
  insurgency will attack the legitimacy of the host-nation government while attempting to develop its own
  credibility with the population. The host-nation government should reduce the credibility of the insurgency
  while strengthening its own legitimacy. A government that is seen as legitimate magnifies the resources
  and capabilities needed to defeat an insurgency and allows the host nation to concentrate finite resources on
  targeting the insurgency. However, legitimacy is a condition perceived by the population. Who the
  population sees as legitimate will be determined by that population’s norms and values. For example, if a
  population does not see outside forces as legitimate, this can undermine the legitimacy of the host-nation
  government trying to counter an insurgency.
  1-32. The legitimacy of the host-nation government is achieved because the population accepts its
  authority and how it governs can be justified in terms of the population’s beliefs. It is not enough for the
  host-nation government to be simply seen as effective and credible. The governmental structure must be
  justifiable to the population and that justification must be based on the population’s norms and values. In
  some situations, providing effective governance may be essential to establish legitimacy among the
  population. However, this is not a uniform rule. The key is that legitimacy is ultimately decided in the
  minds of the population. Counterinsurgents must understand how the population will perceive a
  government. A host nation that is less efficient but perceived as legitimate by the population will be more