Figure 4. Authority Legitimacy, National Resilience, and Long-Horizon National Security

This dataset contains Figure 4 from The Authority Signal: Women’s Military Combat Eligibility, Institutional Legitimacy, and the Long-Horizon Architecture of National Resilience (2026) by Nicolin R. Decker. The figure presents an original doctrinal framework explaining how institutional legitimacy contributes to national resilience and, over time, to long-horizon U.S. national security. The framework identifies five reinforcing legitimacy factors: Compliance and Coordination, Recruitment and Retention, Succession Legitimacy, Adaptive Capacity, and Breadth of the Leadership Archetype. Each factor is examined across three analytical dimensions: its institutional function, its contribution to national resilience, and its long-horizon national-security implications. The model argues that legitimacy is not equivalent to popularity. Rather, it is the public and institutional judgment that authority has been lawfully conferred, competently exercised, and held accountable to the governing order. Institutions possessing legitimate authority are generally better positioned to coordinate action, attract and retain qualified personnel, preserve leadership continuity, adapt under uncertainty, and maintain public confidence during crisis. The figure further illustrates that these legitimacy factors reinforce one another as an integrated system. Credible standards strengthen recruitment; recruitment expands succession capacity; effective succession improves institutional adaptability; and broader, legitimate leadership pathways deepen coordination and resilience across government, defense, critical infrastructure, technology, emergency management, and other sectors essential to national continuity. The framework is intended as a systems-analysis model for policymakers, military professionals, scholars, educators, and researchers examining institutional legitimacy, leader development, civil-military relations, national resilience, and strategic governance. It provides a structured method for evaluating how leadership legitimacy may influence the United States' capacity to anticipate disruption, sustain essential functions, adapt under stress, and preserve constitutional continuity over extended time horizons. This dataset preserves the original print-ready figure together with its interpretive note and supporting doctrinal framework, providing a reproducible analytical model for future policy analysis and empirical investigation.