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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Marksism – No. 34: A Post-Religious Right and Religious Freedom after the Arab Spring
Marksism – No. 34: A Post-Religious Right and Religious Freedom after the Arab Spring

In this episode of Marksism, the editors discuss Tobias Cremer’s article about an emerging post-religious right in America and the US Capitol riot. They also cover Eric Patterson’s article about religious freedom in the Middle East ten years after the Arab Spring.

Marksism – No. 33: Polarization, Civil Religion, and the Inauguration
Marksism – No. 33: Polarization, Civil Religion, and the Inauguration

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss Mark Haas’ article about polarization, and then cover the use of religion in…

John Foster Dulles, God & America

Dulles had a vision of American foreign policy that was animated by a strong sense of righteousness over tyranny and over injustice and unrighteous.

Marksism – No. 32: Discussion on Capitol Riot Articles
Marksism – No. 32: A Discussion about America after the US Capitol Riot

In this episode of Marksism, the editors review recent articles Providence published about the riot at the US Capitol on…

Marksism – No. 31: Storming of the US Capitol
Marksism – No. 31: Storming of the US Capitol

In this episode of Marksism, the editors discuss the storming of the US Capitol and their articles on the topic….

Engaging the Evil Empire

I would encourage anyone to take the real lessons from Reagan and use carrot and stick with an eye to competition, and also to remember, I think this was something that Reagan understood and I think that this is not untrue today, that the United States has to a certain degree time on its side.

Trashing Democracy

It’s been a sad day for American democracy. Our republic will survive but it has been uniquely wounded by the nation’s elected chief magistrate, as none of his predecessors across 230 years would have ever considered.

Marksism 2020 Reflections & 2021 Predictions

Evangelicals remain a key element in the Republican Party. There has been arguably a resurgence of the religious left among progressives and among Democrats so Christianity as a political force has not receded. If anything, it has amplified arguably.

Marksism, No. 29: Partisanship, Nationalism, and Christmas
Marksism – No. 29: Partisanship, Nationalism, and Christmas

In this episode, Mark Tooley and Marc LiVecche speak about recent content on Providence, including Tooley’s article about Christian nationalism, Debra Erickson’s piece on Christian realism and partisanship, and a 75-year-old op-ed about Christmas.

Deriding “Christian Nationalism”

Most critiques of Christian nationalism seem sweepingly to deride all reference to God relating to country.