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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Woody Williams
Hershel “Woody” Williams: Always Faithful

The last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War 2 has died. May his memory linger long in our consciousness.

Ryan Bernacchi TOPGUN
TG2: Maverick – Film talk with former TOPGUN instructor CAPT Ryan “Guido” Bernacchi

Marc LiVecche and Ryan Bernacchi discuss “Top Gun: Maverick” in this wide-ranging talk about naval aviation, ethics, and the challenges of military command

War As Human Experience

Top Gun: Maverick reminds us that war continues to require physically and morally courageous human beings to fight them. Killer machines are not yet here.

Marksism – No. 88: G.K. Chesterton, Flag Day, Israel, Niebuhr
Marksism – No. 88: G.K. Chesterton, Flag Day, Israel, Niebuhr

In this episode, the editors discuss Eric Patterson and Abigail Lindner’s about G.K. Chesterton and Flag Day, Gerald McDermott’s article about Jewish-Christian relations, and Reinhold Niebuhr’s editorial as the Marshall Plan emerged.

Marksism – No. 87: C.S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Christian Realism

The editors discuss Mark Tooley’s article about how C.S. Lewis and Herbert Butterfield interpreted history, Mark Melton’s five impressions on Christian realism from the early Cold War years, and an event promoting Eric Patterson and Robert Joustra’s new book, “Power Politics and Moral Order.”

Marksism – No. 86: Top Gun Audacity, Vocation of Arms, Truman Doctrine
Marksism – No. 86: Top Gun Audacity, Vocation of Arms, Truman Doctrine

The editors discuss Mark Tooley’s review of Top Gun: Maverick, Marc LiVecche’s article about the “vocation of arms,” and how Reinhold Niebuhr viewed the Truman Doctrine and church-state relations in Europe.

arlington
The Vocation of Arms

The vocation of arms is a means through which the just warrior can manifest love even in the ugliest of places. Today we remember what this sometimes costs.

Temple Mount
Until Justice and Wisdom Embrace

Jerusalem is at the heart of tensions in Israel. The Temple Mount is at the heart of tensions in Jersusalem. Therein lies an opportunity.

Marksism: Memorial Day, Czech Anti-Hatred, Russian Orthodoxy & Just War

Providence editors Mark Tooley and Marc LiVecche discuss Abigail Lindner and Eric Patterson’s article on G.K. Chesterton and war memorials, Lubomir Ondrasek’s piece on Czech leader Vaclav Havel’s warning against hatred, and Lee Trepanier’s counsel for how Russian Orthodoxy, lacking the Just War tradition, can oppose injustice with church teaching on personhood.

Marksism – No. 84: Just War Tears, Ukraine Martyr, China Irony

In this episode the editors discuss Rebeccah Heinrichs’ article about John Kirby’s emotional statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Tooley’s editorial about Poland and Ukraine as martyr nations, and Christian realist articles from 1947 debating whether the Chinese communists could exist and thrive in a democracy.