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Chapter 6 This chapter presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book starts from the premise that role theory is a useful framework with which to understand the dynamics of global politics. It reviews the role theory specifically, and the study of international relations (IR) more broadly, by building insight into an aspect that has been generally overlooked in role theory research: the domestic political process and the internal contestation of national role conceptions. The book presents a complex picture of the public's participation in the role contestation process, one that has been missing from much of the prior research on role theory and foreign policy. A more direct illustration of the impact of the public on the role contestation process is when the public must cast a vote, either in an election or a referendum. The book demonstrates the value of methodological and theoretical pluralism in research on role theory