Agents, structures, narratives

In this article I attempt to reshape the agent-structure debate in Internat ional Relations which has become increasingly confused and fruitless. I do so by first rejecting two things - (1) the agent-structure dichotomy, presu pposed in the debate, in favour of the age-old classification of causative factors into mechanistic, volitional and coincidental ones; and (2) the exp lanation-understanding dichotomy, prevalent in the debate, in favour of the idea of 'narrative intelligibilifying'. I also draw attention to narrative as a factor constitutive of agents and structures, and offer a modified ve rsion of structurationism, while rejecting a version of scientific realism sometimes associated with it. As to how one form of social structure moves towards another, I suggest that, at its most ambitious, this is a world-his torical question, and that how the three causative factors are combined in addressing this question is as fascinating as it is vital for our self-unde rstanding as human beings.