Can realists say that state wrongdoing corrupts legitimacy?

Liberal political theory typically holds that injustice can corrupt legitimacy. Realists critique such views as ‘moralist,’ arguing that justice and legitimacy are not the same thing. For realists, even profoundly unjust states can satisfy basic legitimation criteria. While realism may appear hostile to the thesis that injustice corrupts legitimacy, this paper demonstrates that realist theory is more hospitable to that claim than one might expect.