Mark Tooley

Mark Tooley is IRD’s president and editor of IRD’s foreign policy and national security journal, Providence. Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church, published in 2008; Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century, published in 2012; and The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War, published in 2015.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markdtooley

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Riefenstahl’s Nazi Ambivalence

A new documentary confronts Leni Riefenstahl’s lifelong denial of complicity in Nazi crimes, revealing how artistic brilliance and moral blindness can coexist—and why forgetting history invites its return.

Ep. 102 | After Two Years of War, a Chance for Peace?

On the second anniversary of the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, the Provcrew sits down to review Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the war.

Ep. 101 | So Reinhold Niebuhr and John Wesley Walk into a Bar…

Can you be a Wesleyan Protestant and a Christian realist? Mark Tooley, an ardent Methodist, and Robert Nicholson discuss this question on the latest Provcast

Ep. 100 | Recovering ‘Hebraic Mortar’ to Patch Crumbling Foundations

The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk is a wakeup call for Americans of every stripe. What is happening to our society? How can we fix it—and where do we start?

The “Unnecessary War” 80 Years Later

America could have prevented World War II and, with benevolent wisdom and fraternal strength, can forestall another.

Meeting Monsters?

Monsters must be dealt with. But there should never be confusion about what they are.

Ep. 96 | The West and Weapons of Mass Destruction 80 Years after Hiroshima

The Providence editors discuss the meaning of “Western Civilization” and the legacy of Hiroshima, 80 years later

Last of Great Global Political Thrillers?

In Cold War literature, Forsyth was a sort of Homer of popular but sophisticated thrillers that demonstrated what made and sustained the West.

Timeless Whiggish Principles of Liberty

May we all strive to be a “sincere Lover of Liberty.”

July 4: “Liberty as Independence”

“The Founders way of thinking about liberty is much more alert to dangers to liberty in civil society.”