This chapter introduces the purpose and core arguments of the book, which focuses on exposing, examining and underlining the acute challenges faced by East African post-liberation movements seeking to re-structure and transform regional politics. The analysis that follows argues for the importance of common ideological, ideational and aspirational frameworks around pan-Africanism and liberation across the four post-liberation elites in their negotiation of a place in the region. The conceptual framework developed nonetheless also underlines how far these movements needed to accommodate a range of competing forces and pressures in the years following their victories, reformist ambitions often sitting uncomfortably alongside the practicalities of regional diplomacy and, increasingly, regime maintenance and intra-movement politics. The chapter also emphasises the importance of understanding these post-liberation elites as social, as well as ideological and pragmatic, actors.