Marc LiVecche

Marc LiVecche 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.

Marc completed doctoral studies, earning distinction, at the University of Chicago, where he worked under the supervision of the political theorist and public intellectual Jean Bethke Elshtain, until her death in August, 2013. His first book, The Good Kill: Just War & Moral Injury, was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. Another project, Responsibility and Restraint: James Turner Johnson and the Just War Tradition, co-edited with Eric Patterson, was published by Stone Tower Press in the fall of 2020. Currently, he is finalizing Moral Horror: A Just War Defense of Hiroshima. Before all this academic stuff, Marc spent twelve years doing a variety of things in Central Europe—ranging from helping build sport and recreational leagues in post-communist communities, to working at a Christian study and research center, to leading seminars on history and ethics onsite at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp in Poland. This latter experience allowed him to continue his undergraduate study of the Shoah; a process which rendered him entirely ill-suited for pacifism.

Marc lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and children–and a marmota monax whistlepigging under the shed. He can be followed, or stalked, on twitter @mlivecche. Additional publications can be found at his Amazon author page.

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Ep. 94 | What We Mean by ‘Judeo-Christian’

On June 30th, Providence and Tikvah partnered to convene a panel titled “What We Mean by ‘Judeo-Christian'”

Ep. 93 | The Israeli General Who Predicted Oct 7 – and What He’s Predicting Now (Yossi Kuperwasser)

Marc LiVecche & Robert Nicholson interview Yossi Kuperwasser on the emergence of a new regional security architecture that could bring about dramatic changes in the Near East.

chivalry marines
Combat Ethics, Warrior Ethos, and Moral Injury

If just war tradition requires particular kinds of warriors to fight just wars justly, we owe those particular kinds of warriors particularly kinds of things

Episode 92 | Is America Betraying Middle East Christians?

The Provcast team interview Rich Ghazal, Executive Director of In Defense of Christians, to discuss the question of Christian persecution as it relates to US foreign policy

Episode 91 | Is Israel’s Fight for Survival also America’s Fight?

Dr. Farhad Rezaei joins the Provcast to discuss the hard questions around the Israel-Iran conflict, including escalation, American involvement, and regime change

A Love for Life and Responsible Sovereignty

Israel’s strike against Iran proves that the Western love of life is not our weakness, but our strength. And a means toward responsible statecraft.

Episode 90 | Is There a Trump Doctrine? And What Just Happened in Ukraine

Editors Marc LiVecche, Mark Tooley and Robert Nicholson discuss Trump’s May Middle East trip and Ukraine’s recent drone attacks on Russia’s strategic bombers

Pope Leo
Where Will Leo XIV Stand on War?

The late Pope Francis failed to represent the best of his tradition’s teaching on war and martial responsibility. It is crucial that Leo XIV rectifies this.

Episode 87 | Of American Popes and American Power in a Multipolar Age

Editors James Diddams, Marc LiVecche, Mark Tooley and Robert Nicholson discuss Pope Francis’ legacy, Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, and the idea of “spheres of influence” in US grand strategy

80 Years After VE Day, We Remember That Victory Is Rooted in Virtue

The victory in Europe was made possible by character, resolve, and capability of the Allied warrior. Such virtues were needed then. They are needed still.