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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Betting on the Wrong Horse

Confessed Soviet spy Morton Sobell died in December, age 101. He was the last surviving major participant in the atomic…

Tyranny & Russian Orthodoxy

In the West, the church has often defined itself by defying the state. In the East, particularly Russia, the church…

Martin Luther King, America & the World
Martin Luther King Jr. as Icon of US Democracy

There is typically too little reference to the civil rights martyr’s Cold War role. He delivered two important Cold War…

America’s Walls & Biblical Walls

Amid debate and the ongoing federal government partial shutdown over funding for border security and wall construction, two very different…

Young Christians & America’s Global Role in 2019

During the Christmas season many inevitably again watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which Jimmy Stewart as a suicidal George…

America’s Spirituality, Europe, and “White” America

As Americans become less demographically European, will American foreign policy focus less on traditional European allies?

On Lesbian Statecraft: A Critique of The Favourite

Modern dramas like The Favourite darkly portray statecraft as merely cynical self-serving manipulation. But governments, nations, and public officials are not outside God’s grace. They are, despite the rebellious spirits of this world, ultimately instruments of His providence. Queen Anne and the Marlboroughs likely knew their role in this celestial drama.

Depart from Me: Jonathan Merritt vs. Mark Tooley on Yemeni Civil War

I was left implicitly damned for suggesting the war in Yemen is complicated.

George H. W. Bush, Global Leader & Episcopalian (1924-2018)

President George H. W. Bush was the last of nine presidents directly involved in WWII. He also may be the…

Poland’s 100 Years

Last week I attended the Polish Embassy’s celebration of modern Poland’s 100th anniversary. Appropriately the event was at the U.S….