ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the issue Erskine highlights. They give a general account of the conditions of moral agency and describe the different kinds of moral responsibility that might apply in international relations contexts. A consequentialist theory sets store on the question of whether it is of any use to assign moral responsibility and this does not, by itself, preclude holding non-persons responsible for their actions. The authors take philosophical accounts of the attribution of moral agency and ask how they can help us understand the responsibility of international actors. They discover agency, on this approach, when it forms an ineliminable part of the theoretical explanation of international events and patterns of events. Both realism and constructivism have complex histories within international relations scholarship, and both are developing apace.
