The seven essays in this work explore important questions that are at the heart of the understanding of political leadership. What are the relationships among personal political skill, the strength or weakness of institutional roles available to leaders, and the changing historical and political contexts within which leades act? Politicians with agendas for change seek to create dynamic relations of talent, institutional powers and the politics of strategic leadership in the environments that they face. Passive leaders may leave things as they are or inadvertently stimulate new political opposition. Institutional powers may strengthn the hand of less skillful politicians if the environment is favorable. And political climates will vary greatly in the degrees to which they are favorable to potentially skillful leadership. Effective leadership may be successful by a hair’s breadth, or it may be over determined by context.