Thomas Risse takes on the importance of the governance perspective for international relations and its repercussions for the agency–structure debate. He argues that governance holds an inherent compatibility with a sophisticated understanding of the mutual constitution of agents and structures. Risse notes the real possibility that the governance research agenda uncovers a decreasing exclusivity of the state in foreign policy analysis and the rise of non-state actors, which in turn opens up for new research questions that are not solely concerned with hierarchical modes of steering.