Freedom Isn’t Free takes an analytical look at political, economic, social and moral trade-offs in a world in flux. Highly readable and very accessible, the volume’s collected foreign affairs essays are wide-ranging and engaging—from manageable regional issues to dramatic geopolitical tensions—presented not as distant complexities, but as relatable events. Freedom Isn’t Free provides a strategic guide to some of the most important—sometimes intractable—issues of the day. It pays special attention to superpower America’s role in contemporary geopolitics and her shifting policy options given leadership, competition, domestic governing challenges and self-inflicted nativism. Unlike most International Relations texts, Freedom Isn’t Free investigates actual, contemporary themes that nest political theory within the arguments and analyses of the collected essays, privileging liberal state systems and citizens’ individual liberties.

Understanding foreign policy and how it affects international politics, economics, diplomacy, and security can be complicated. This collection of coherent and cogently analytical and prescriptive essays provides a larger context for strategic insight. Freedom Isn’t Free is a curated collection of essays and columns that are accessible and, at times, entertaining. The book’s lessons break through barriers to geopolitical understanding to achieve deep learning while providing frameworks for both study and practice. 

Freedom Isn’t Free also operates as a resource and guide for journalism and communications students interested in deeply researched foreign affairs opinion writing. This volume provides examples of how columnists shape and form their topics. Thematically organized around principles of freedom within a geopolitical context, this work exemplifies creative processes; wide-and-varied topic selection; and the ability to combine deeply researched, fair and fact-based analysis while developing a writing style with a strong advocate’s voice and clear perspective. 

Markos Kounalakis is an award-winning author, scholar and journalist. He is a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Foreword by Nancy Ancrum; Introduction An Expensive Good; Chapter 1 Freedom of Speech; Chapter 2 Freedom of Thought; Chapter 3 Freedom to Worship; Chapter 4 Freedom to Learn; Chapter 5 Freedom of Movement; Chapter 6 Freedom from Corruption; Chapter 7 Freedom from Fear; Chapter 8 Freedom from Oppression; Chapter 9 Freedom through Security; Chapter 10 A Free World; Afterword The Challenge to Freedom; Acknowledgments; Bibliography; Index.