On October 26-27, Providence and the Institute on Religion and Democracy will host the sixth annual Christianity and National Security conference at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC. The schedule and list of speakers are as follows:
- Thursday, October 26th
- 11:30am Lunch available at IRD office at 1023 15 St NW, 3 blocks from Army Navy Club
- 1pm Eric Patterson
- 1:45pm Daryl Charles
- 2:30pm Elbridge Colby
- 3:15pm Paul Miller
- 4pm Joe Loconte
- Post-remarks Chik-fil-A at IRD office for students
- Friday, October 27th
- 8am Breakfast at ANC
- 9am Peter Pham
- 9:45am Michael Singh
- 10:30am Rebeccah Heinrichs
- 11:15am Paul Marshall
- Noon Lunch at ANC
- 1pm Becky Munson
- 1:45pm Marc LiVecche
- 2:30pm Eric Farnsworth
- 3:15pm Matthew Kroenig
- 4pm Concluding Remarks
Providence is grateful to the following speakers who have agreed to participate in the conference this year:
J. Daryl Charles is an affiliate scholar of the John Jay Institute and has served as the Acton Institute Affiliated Scholar in Theology & Ethics. He is author, co-author or editor of 21 books, including (with Eric Patterson) Just War and Christian Traditions (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), (with Mark David Hall) America and the Just War Tradition: A History of U.S. Conflicts (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), (with David D. Corey) The Just War Tradition: An Introduction (ISI Books, 2012), (with Timothy J. Demy) War, Peace, and Christianity (Crossway, 2010), and Between Pacifism and Jihad (IVP, 2005).
Elbridge Colby is the cofounder and principal of The Marathon Initiative and author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict. He served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development from 2017 through 2018, leading the Pentagon’s 2018 National Defense Strategy that shifted U.S. defense focus toward great power rivalry. He has written for Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The National Interest, among other publications. He earned his JD from Yale Law School.
Eric Farnsworth leads the Washington office of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society. A recognized expert, he maintains an important policy leadership and advocacy role across a broad range of issues, including U.S. relations, economic development, trade, and energy; Asia-Latin American relations and global governance; and security and democracy. Prior to the Council, Mr. Farnsworth served in the Department of State, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Clinton White House. He also worked with U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). His private sector experiences include ManattJones Global Strategies and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporation. He has been decorated by the Governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Spain, and is an elected Academic Correspondent of Uruguay. He earned his MPA from Princeton University.
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative. She currently serves as a commissioner on the bipartisan Strategic Posture Commission. She also serves on the US Strategic Command Advisory Group and the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness. She is an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics and a contributing editor for Providence. She earned her MA in national security and strategic studies from the US Naval War College and is pursuing her doctorate in defense and strategic studies with Missouri State University.
Matthew Kroenig (PhD, UC-Berkeley) is Vice President and Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Council’s Director of Studies. In these roles, he manages the Scowcroft Center’s bipartisan team of more than thirty resident staff and oversees the Council’s extensive network of nonresident fellows. He previously served in the Department of Defense and the intelligence community during the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. Kroenig is also a tenured professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University.
Marc LiVecche (PhD, University of Chicago) is the McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the US Naval War College, in the College of Leadership and Ethics. His first book, The Good Kill: Just War & Moral Injury, was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. With Eric Patterson he co-edited Responsibility and Restraint: James Turner Johnson and the Just War Tradition, published by Stone Tower Press in the fall of 2020.
Joseph Loconte (PhD, King’s College London) is a Presidential Scholar in Residence at New College of Florida and the C.S. Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Religion and Democracy and is a contributing editor for Providence. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918. His most recent book is God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West.
Paul Marshall (PhD, York University) is the Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor University, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the Religious Freedom Institute, and a contributing editor for Providence. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books on religion and politics, especially religious freedom, and his work has been published or covered in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, First Things, New Republic, Weekly Standard, and other outlets.
Paul D. Miller (PhD, Georgetown University) is a professor in the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a contributing editor for Providence, a research fellow with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council. He also served in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
J. Peter Pham (PhD, Gregorian University) is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Senior Advisor at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. He previously served as U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa (2018-2020) and U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa (2020-2021), with the personal rank of Ambassador. Prior to serving in those roles, he was Vice President for Regional Initiatives and Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. With doctorates in both political science and theology, he is the author or editor of a dozen books and more than 300 articles, essays and reviews on African politics, security, and economic issues as well as history, theology, and ethics. From 2010-2018, he was editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of the Middle East and Africa.
Rebecca Munson (PhD, George Mason University) is an associate professor and department chair at Liberty University’s Helms School of Government. Within the School of Government, she oversees the doctoral program in public policy and teaches a range of courses on international relations, foreign policy, human rights, and research methods.
Eric Patterson (PhD, UC-Santa Barbara) serves as President of the Religious Freedom Institute. Patterson is past dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, where he previously served full-time. He is also a contributing editor for Providence.
Michael Singh is the managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to advancing American interests in the Middle East. He was senior director for Near East and North African Affairs at the White House from 2007-2008, and director for several Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Syria, on the NSC staff from 2005-2007. Earlier, he served as special assistant to Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, as well as staff aide to the US ambassador to Israel. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.
College students, professors, and young professionals who wish to attend the conference should reach out to James Diddams at [email protected].
