ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how questions of responsibility and accountability have typically been treated in international relations, examining both traditional and contemporary contributions. The discussion is framed in terms of a distinction between three ‘modes’ or ‘orientations’ towards responsibility and accountability. Practices of responsibility differ most significantly in terms of the practical orientation towards accountability, defined in terms of both account giving and account settling. Drawing on the conceptual work of scholars of international political theory and ethics, a rough distinction is made between relational, transcendental, and autonomous modes of responsibility. These categories capture the varying ways in which actors consider themselves to have obligations, to whom, and what role other social actors ought to play in keeping the actors in question accountable.
