What it takes for communicators to interact competently with intercultural others remains a contested conceptual site. This dissertation addresses the debate between the individual and relational perspectives regarding the origins or location of intercultural communication competence (ICC). The individual approach to ICC equates this concept with a set of individual attributes located within the communicator. The relational perspective conceives of this competence as a social judgment that communicators can make about each other in relationships. The dissertation brings together these two seemingly competing paradigms regarding intercultural communication competence research by combining the individual perspective (based on predictions from the trait perspective) and the relational perspective (based on social network theory). Through a social network analysis design, living-abroad individuals’ ego networks and multicultural personality traits were examined in relation to ICC, independently and collectively. Results revealed that multicultural personality traits were strong predictors of ICC. Specifically, when the traits were evaluated separately from or together with network variables, open-mindedness, cultural empathy, and social initiative positively, and flexibility and emotional stability negatively related to ICC. Ego network characteristics also had relationships with ICC, but they were weaker predictors than personality traits. In particular, when the ego network variables were examined independently, separately from traits, strong intercultural network size negatively, whereas heterophily and diversity positively, related to ICC. When the network variables were examined together with traits, the effect of network diversity disappeared. In addition, the trait of open-mindedness was found to mediate the associations between network diversity and several competence dimensions. These results offer some support for a cross-paradigmatically theoretical framework explaining what it takes to become interculturally competent, with antecedents at the individual and relational levels. The findings also have theoretical implications for the study of ICC as well as practical implications for living-abroad individuals, intercultural educators, and trainers.