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Austen Givens: Difference between revisions
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Givens entered the political arena in 2003 when he was selected for an undergraduate fellowship at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neoconservative-aligned research institution in Washington, DC, while he was a student at the University of Virginia. At UVA he published columns in the student-run publications ''The Virginia Advocate'' and ''The Cavalier Daily'' pressing for hawkish U.S. foreign policy positions that vigorously pursued the elimination of terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a public supporter of George W. Bush’s 2004 Presidential campaign and the U.S.-led war in Iraq. During the summer of 2003, he was an intern in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. In August 2003 he traveled to Israel for a series of seminars on counterterrorism conducted at Tel Aviv University. | Givens entered the political arena in 2003 when he was selected for an undergraduate fellowship at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neoconservative-aligned research institution in Washington, DC, while he was a student at the University of Virginia. At UVA he published columns in the student-run publications ''The Virginia Advocate'' and ''The Cavalier Daily'' pressing for hawkish U.S. foreign policy positions that vigorously pursued the elimination of terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a public supporter of George W. Bush’s 2004 Presidential campaign and the U.S.-led war in Iraq. During the summer of 2003, he was an intern in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. In August 2003 he traveled to Israel for a series of seminars on counterterrorism conducted at Tel Aviv University. | ||
After | After graduating from UVA, Givens served briefly as an intern in the Capitol Hill offices of then-Representative John Boozman (R-AR) and the late Jo Ann Davis (R-VA). In late 2004 he left Capitol Hill to take an entry-level job in the international trade division of Wiley, Rein & Fielding LP, a law firm co-founded by Reagan White House Counsel Fred Fielding. | ||
From 2004-2015 Givens largely avoided politics to focus on career development and education. He published a letter to the editor of ''National Review'' in 2006 calling for Saddam Hussein to be tried in Iraq, rather than in an international tribunal, for crimes against the Iraqi people. While a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, he penned an April 2008 column in ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch'' in which he advocated for U.S. nuclear sanctions against Iran to be linked to Tehran’s international support of terrorist organizations. | From 2004-2015 Givens largely avoided politics to focus on career development and education. He published a letter to the editor of ''National Review'' in 2006 calling for Saddam Hussein to be tried in Iraq, rather than in an international tribunal, for crimes against the Iraqi people. While a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, he penned an April 2008 column in ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch'' in which he advocated for U.S. nuclear sanctions against Iran to be linked to Tehran’s international support of terrorist organizations. | ||
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Givens has since backed Marc Molinaro’s 2018 campaign for Governor of New York State. | Givens has since backed Marc Molinaro’s 2018 campaign for Governor of New York State. | ||
==Organizational Positions== | ==Organizational Positions== | ||