You Run the Show or the Show Runs You

J.D. Crouch II is senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, and a former deputy national security advisor.Patrick J. Garrity is faculty research associate at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.

The book's fundamental purpose...is to explain Prof. [Bill] Rood's unique perspective on the practice of strategy to those who never had the pleasure of knowing him during his lifetime, and it does so outstandingly. . . .You Run the Show or the Show Runs You is an impressive success in every respect, and a fitting tribute to Prof. Rood's intellectual legacy. Those who knew him personally will read the book with particularly pleasure, given how delightfully it evokes the spirit of the man himself, but even those too young to have been his students will be enlightened as to why, for instance, arguments concerning British defense policy published in the Royal United Services Institute Journal in 1937 might shed light on the strategic problems facing democracies today and in the future.

• Introduction: The Organization and Summary of the ArgumentChapter 1: The Nature of Politics: The Inherent Logic of EventsChapter 2: The Nature of International Politics: There’s Going to Be a WarChapter 3: The Nature of Strategy: You Run the Show or the Show Runs YouChapter 4: The Democratic Strategy Deficit: Political, not MilitaryChapter 5: The Russian Problem: A Study in Grand StrategyChapter 6: America and the Distant RampartsChapter 7: The “End” of the Cold WarConclusion: Rood’s ChallengesBibliography: The Writings of Harold W. RoodAppendix 1: In Memoriam: Professor Harold W. RoodAppendix 2: Professor Rood’s Selected Reading ListAppendix 3: Win a Few, Lose a Few: World War II Remembered