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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Deep State Theology

Claims about a dark “deep state” 50 years ago or now distract from addressing an always more challenging reality.

Gambling Against America

America is a Judaic nation whose principles trace to the Hebrews scriptures.

PBS’s “The Movement & The Madman”

Reinhold Niebuhr would recognize the nuances that this documentary chose to ignore.  

Christian Realism & the Iraq War

A statecraft dreaming that a great nation can be in the world but not of it is both hubristic and self-righteous.

Brazil & Christian Violence

Strong faith is no substitute for or guarantee of political good judgment.

Christmas, New Year’s, & War

May our Congress always welcome leaders who fight for liberty.

James Baker’s Cold Realism

His approach in politics and diplomacy made Baker often unappealing to advocates of conviction politics but indispensable to situations needing practical results.

Belshazzar’s Feast

Whether in days, months, years or decades, the regimes in China, Russia and Iran will tumble.

God Bless Iran’s Protesting Women

One of Christian civilization’s greatest accomplishments is the legal and social equality of women.

Guy Fawkes & National Identity

The day has been central to Britain’s unfolding self-identity as  independent, self-governing, defiant, free from domestic and external tyranny. 

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Christianity & National Security 2023

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