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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porter halyburton
Reflections On Captivity (And Freedom): A Review

Porter Halyburton’s extraordinary memoir of his POW experience is a testament to the power of choice and human liberty

Chinese balloon, espionage
Float and Dagger: Espionage as Probing Maneuver

There is no peacetime in the Maoist worldview. The Chinese spy balloon was one more means for Beijing to turn the strategic environment to its advantage.

Just War 101 – E5: Proper Authority

The just war tradition offers a view of politics conceiving of sovereignty as a moral responsibility through the just causes of war can be met and overcome.

Just War 101 – E4: Spurs and Restraints: Overview of the JAB and the JIB

As should already be clear from this series’ first three essays (here, here, and here), the Christian realist just war…

Just War 101 – E3: Why The Big Ox Matters

Thomas Aquinas is a pivotal thinker — historically and conceptually — in the development of the Christian realist just war tradition

The Spirit and the Body in War
Just War 101 – E2: Two Presumptions, (Not) Alike in Dignity

The Christian realist just war tradition is primarily concerned with aiding reflection on how to meet the obligations of of love through, not despite, war

Just War 101: A Primer on Fighting Right Fights, Rightly

The first in a series, this introductory essay grounds the historical development of just war tradition in Christian moral and political responsibility

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: 60 Years On

Necessary, discriminate, and proportionate force in the last resort in defense of good was essential in the Wild West–just as it’s essential today

Ukraine drones
The Constants of Changing War

The unprecedented use of drones in the Ukraine war have transformed the modern battlefield. At the same time, nothing has changed.

the stranger
The Cost of Fighting Evil: A Review of The Stranger (2022)

Director: Thomas M. Wright Featuring: Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Jada Alberts, Steve Mouzakis Rated R for language and disturbing content…