ABSTRACT
In the preceding two chapters we have highlighted the need to attend to the (inter) subjective element of social phenomena. More directly, we have argued that the analysis of international politics inevitably needs to account for the intentional nature of agency, and benefits from the introduction of sets of rules and practices which agents of international politics invoke in the process of social action. The question addressed in the present chapter is whether these subjectivist ontological infusions require an epistemology distinct from that of theories, such as structural realism, which emphasize “objective” ontologies of international politics.
