ABSTRACT
Transnational threats to the stability of nation-states by non-state actors and non-governmental processes and organizations are among the most critical security problems confronting the world at the end of the twentieth century. These non-traditional challenges to the national territories and the internal security of traditional nation-states are creating an environment of "unstable peace" that is being defined as the gray area phenomenon. The concept of legitimacy is based on the niceties of international law and the purview of the governed and is complicated by the expectations of internal societal elements and external friends and enemies. Moral legitimacy is both an internal and external dynamic relating to possibly conflicting internal perceptions and usually conflicting external perceptions of what is right or wrong or good or bad in terms of governance. Despite the difficulties of dealing with corruption and its consequences, the level of state corruption is a key measure of political and moral legitimacy.
