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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Reagan the Peacemaker

The evidence is pretty strong that he deserves a very considerable share of the credit for America’s peaceful victory in the Cold War.

“The Crown” vs “The Empress”

Autocracies might be great for fictionalized entertainment but not for real life.

Putin & Hitler

Putin is not Hitler. But he is a malevolent and paranoid little man who has harnessed a great nation for dangerous purposes.

Celebrating Columbus Day?

We should celebrate Columbus Day soberly and gratefully.

Giorgia Meloni & Secularizing Italy

Hopefully much of Meloni’s rhetoric in this regard is mostly showmanship and she governs pragmatically, not as a crusade of resentment. 

Queen Elizabeth’s Protestant Decency 

She upheld a central cluster of decency amid our world’s many horrors and dangers, for which thank God.

Queen Elizabeth’s “Brutal” Empire?

Queen Elizabeth represented the best of the British Empire: dignified, respectful, restrained, stable, transcending culture and time on behalf of timeless truths.

Christian Realism vs Christian Nationalism

Christian Realism works to harmonize and reform society through mediating rival interests and leaning into Providence.

The Church & National Conservatism

Christians can discern God’s hand even when He is not directly acknowledged.

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre’s Lessons for Today

The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre should remind us of the dangers of absolutism and demands for coerced religious and political conformity.