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.

All Author Content

Author Articles

Author Podcasts

Author Videos

Marksism – No. 51: Pelagians, Anxieties, and Memorial Day
Marksism – No. 51: Pelagians, Anxieties, and Memorial Day

This week the editors discuss Mark Tooley’s conversation with Eric Nelson about his book “The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God.” They also cover a 1946 article about Americans’ post-World War II anxieties and Eric Patterson’s editorial about Memorial Day.

Marksism – No. 50: Hamas Just War, Latin Religious Liberty, World Religion

This week the editors discuss Paul D. Miller’s article about Israel and Hamas, an editorial from 1946 explaining how Americans needed to understand world religion better, a look at religious freedom in South America, and Dunkirk.

Marksism — No. 49: Jesus & Hamas, New Whiggery, & Iraq War

Today we’re covering three scintillating pieces from Providence this week, one on the Israel and Hamas conflict, another on a new book about the Iraq War, and thirdly, one by yours truly on the New Whiggery.

Israel Gaza war
Proportionality and the Israel-Hamas Conflict

For proportionality to remain a helpful category in limiting the horrors of war, it needs to remain a calculation of costs against effects—measuring the goods to be achieved by two measures of harms, including that which will be likely done if force is not used,

Marksism — No. 48: Gaza, Samaritan, LGBTQIA

In this week’s episode, the editors cover recent content, including on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Good Samaritan, and LGBT rights.

True North, Ep. 15: Values or Interests in US Foreign Policy Toward China?
True North, Ep. 15: Values or Interests in US Foreign Policy Toward China?

In this episode of True North, Daniel Strand and Marc LiVecche speak with Elbridge Colby to discuss his recent National Interest essay, “Interest, Not Values Should Guide America’s China Strategy.”

Marksism — No. 47: Decadent America and USCIRF’s Report, and Pakistani Justice
Marksism — No. 47: Decadent America, USCIRF’s Report, and Pakistani Justice

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss Mark Tooley’s response to Sohrab Ahmari’s controversial tweet about a China-led twenty-first century and American decadence. They also recap Mark Melton’s conversation with Steven Howard about the 2021 report from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), along with an article about Pakistan’s justice system.

Marksism — No. 46: Armenian Genocide Recognition and American “Suckers”
Marksism — No. 46: Armenian Genocide Recognition and American “Suckers”

In this episode, the editors discuss articles by Peter Burns and Alberto M. Fernandez about the Armenian Genocide and President…

True North, Ep. 14: Just War and Just Intention
True North, Ep. 14: Just War and Just Intention

In this episode of “True North,” our dynamic duo helps us get our bearings properly centered on the just intention of war.

Marksism — No. 45: George Floyd & Justice, Religious Liberty, and Jemar Tisby

In this episode of Marksism, Mark Tooley and Marc LiVecche discuss Dan Strand’s Christian Realist perspective on the George Floyd verdict, a critical review of Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise, and Ian Speir’s review of Andrew Walker’s Liberty for All.

 ⏰ Sponsor a student for Christianity & National Security 2024

Providence's biggest event of the year takes place the final Thursday and Friday of each October, attracting close to 100 students and professors from around the country to spend two days hearing lectures and discussing the intersection of Christian ethics and foreign policy. For $300, Providence can afford to feed and house a student flying in from California, Texas, and other parts of the country for the conference. Christianity & National Security is unique; there is no other such event examining national security in light of Just War Theory and realist ethics in the Christian tradition. Please consider making a donation to allow us to continue hosting Christianity & National Security.

Christianity & National Security 2023

Sponsor a student