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
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.”
Mark TooleySeptember 11, 2026
Dalibor Rohac discusses his new book Unshackled: How Economic Growth Can Defeat the World’s Dictators.
Mark TooleyAugust 31, 2026
As a fight against repression and aggression, the U.S. war in Vietnam was indeed noble. But for it to be more fully just it should also have been winnable or at least sustainable. According to McNamara at War, it was neither, which McNamara came to realize
Mark TooleyAugust 24, 2026
Bombast and grievance have their moments. But faith, love and forgiveness endure.
Mark TooleyJuly 2, 2026
Neutralizing Iran’s dictatorship was in theory a noble cause.
Mark TooleyJune 18, 2026
Editors James Diddams and Mark Tooley are joined by Hillsdale history professor Darryl Hart to discuss the rise of postliberal Protestantism in the US
James Diddams & Darryl Hart & Mark TooleyApril 19, 2026
Arguably the Iran War is America’s first post-Christian war, heralded with brutalist rhetoric, not a moral vision. The problem is not so much “bad theology,” but no theology.
Mark TooleyApril 8, 2026
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. – Abraham Lincoln
Mark TooleyMarch 24, 2026
While Iran’s theocratic regime should be overturned, will Operation Epic Fury ultimately bring this goal closer to fruition or exhaust the patience of the American electorate with wars in the Middle East?
Mark Tooley & Robert Nicholson & Marc LiVecche & Robert JoustraMarch 19, 2026
A Christian Realist view, different from nearly all forms of Christian Nationalism, is that social righteousness advances haphazardly and providentially.
Mark TooleyMarch 12, 2026