Tournament: Greenhill rr | Round: 4 | Opponent: Pace | Judge: Ryan Wash Gabe Murillo
China importing from steel from cuba now- plan crowds them out
Fox News 06 (8/02/06. "Cuban Changes Could Offer Investing Opportunities". www.foxnews.com/story/2006/08/02/cuban-changes-could-offer-investing-opportunities/)
Cuba also has tight ties
AND
expects Freeport-McMoRan to try to reclaim ownership.¶ 

Cuban Nickel is key to the Chinese economy and manufacturing-
Murray 04 (Mary Murray, journalist for NBC News. 11/23/04. "China Gives Boost to Cuba's Economy". www.nbcnews.com/id/6566988/ns/world_news/t/china-gives-boost-cubas-economy/#.UfBiRI1QEn4)
During a 48-hour visit to the island
AND
 generate some $800 million this year.

Manufacturing is key to the Chinese economy
AEI 13 (Asian Economy Institute. "The Decline of China's Manufacturing Sector". www.asiaecon.org/exclusives/ex_read/57)
Over the years, China’s unstoppable economic growth
AND
 be the best place in Asia to invest.

Chinese economic collapse causes World War Three
Plate, 3 (Tom, Prof Communications and Public – UCLA, Straights Times, 6-28)
But imagine a China disintegrating
AND
White House now seems to prefer.

Tournament: Greenhill RR | Round: 5 | Opponent: Greenhill | Judge: Andres Gannon Martin Osborne
PEMEX reform passing now because of Nieto’s political capital --- increase oil production through expertise and tech sharing
O’Reilly 8-7 (Andrew, 2013, Writer/Producer for Fox News Latino, “Mexico's Peña Nieto Pushes Oil Reform Despite Strong Opposition”, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2013/08/07/mexico-pena-nieto-pushes-oil-reform-despite-strong-opposition/#ixzz2dNoQAuJw)

The battle lines in the fight over
AND
 to becoming involved in his country’s oil industry.

Cooperation with the US is unpopular --- particularly with the PRI
Long 13 (Tom Long 4-16-2013 Doctoral research fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University, "Will tensions over security spoil the Obama-Peña Nieto Summit?” American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, aulablog.net/2013/04/16/will-tensions-over-security-spoil-the-obama-pena-nieto-summit/)

Peña Nieto’s political incentives do not
AND
 judicial reform could also grow more serious.

PEMEX reform solves US oil dependence
Hakim 11-26 (Peter 2012, president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, Foreign Policy, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/won_t_you_be_my_neighbor?page=0,0)

Beyond immigration, Peña Nieto and his advisors
AND
distant and/or troubled parts of the world. 

Oil dependence causes extinction
Lendman 7 (Stephen, renowned author and research associate at the Center for Research on Globalization, “Resource Wars - Can We Survive Them?”, July 2007, http://www.rense.com/general76/-resrouce.htm)
*This card edited to remove holocaust rhetoric which we do not endorse

With the world's energy supplies finite
AND
part of it, would have survived.

Tournament: TOC | Round: 4 | Opponent: Carrollton | Judge: Richard Day
1NC---1
Economic engagement is a formal trade agreement or foreign aid—anything else wrecks limits and conceptual clarity
Resnick 1 – Dr. Evan Resnick, Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, “Defining Engagement”, Journal of International Affairs, Spring, 54(2), Ebsco

A REFINED DEFINITION OF ENGAGEMENT¶ In order to establish a more effective framework for
AND
the information necessary to better manage the rogue states of the 21st century.

Voting issue-
a. Ground- topic disads are predicated off of broader sustained engagement. There is no link uniqueness for one time appeasement because that happens all the time.
b. limits- there are an infinite amount of foreign direct investment mechanisms or portions of the embargo that their interpretation allows.

1NC---2
A. Text – The United States Supreme Court should issue a narrow ruling that Department of Commerce rulemaking, specifically licensing crude oil swaps between the United States and Mexico, constitutes a violation of Article I of the United States Constitution. The United States Congress should license crude oil swaps between the United States and Mexico. Congress should consult all necessary and relevant agencies.  All actors should default to the mandates of the counterplan. We will clarify. 

B. Competition – The Affirmative plan is done by an agency while the CP is done through legislation; these two are different modes of policymaking
David Epstein, Department of Political Science and Stanford Graduate School of Business, Columbia and Stanford University and Sharyn O'Halloran, Department of Political Science and the School of Internationaland Public Affairs and Hoover Institution, Columbia and Stanford University, 20 Cardozo L. Rev. 947 1999
Our institutional analysis begins with the observation that there are two alternative modes for specifying
AND
that one is used more, the other will perforce be used less.

C. Solvency – The CP solves the case better – Congress is quicker and more efficient
Taylor, Director, Natural Resource Studies, the CATO Institute, 9/12/96
Congress could achieve the public purposes that it now pursues through delegation in far less
AND
put back upon the shoulders of the Congress" responsibility for controversial choices.

A. Delegation crushes democracy and allows for the worst violence
David Schoenbrod, prof of law NY law school and Jerry Taylor, Director of Natural Resource Studies CATO, 2001
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb107/hb107-8.pdf
The concern over congressional delegation of power is not simply theoretical and abstract, for
AND
cranny of American life in a way that was simply impossible before.’’

B. Democracy solves everything including extinction
Diamond 1995 -
Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons continue to proliferate. The very source of life on Earth, the global ecosystem, appears increasingly endangered. Most of these new and unconventional threats to security are associates with or aggravated by the weakness or absence of democracy, with its provisions for legality, accountability, popular sovereignty, and openness.
1NC --- 3
The plan decreases oil dependence
Lisa Murkowski, 1-7-2014; US Senator (R – Alaska) citing work by the Congressional Research Service,
“A Signal to the World: Renovating the Architecture of US Energy Exports” An Energy 20/20 White Paper www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=546d56f0-05b6-41e6-84c1-b4c4c5efa372

The United States is producing more oil today than at any point in the past
AND
system by protecting jobs, boosting production, and enhancing efficiency and specialization.

Receding oil dependence causes global collapse and creates multiple scenarios for global warfare
Lawrence 08 (Andrew Lawrence, Stanford, International Relations, “‘The Most Inconvenient Truth:’ The Necessity of Good Governance in Oil-Exporters,” Stanford Journal of International Relations, Fall/Winter 2008, http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjir/pdf/Oil_Governance_REAL_final.pdf)
Yet because “oil wealth is robustly associated with more durable regimes” 9 that
AND
devastating effects in these countries and, by extension, throughout the world.

1NC---4
Text: The United States federal government should license and facilitate crude oil swaps with Canada.
Trade with Canada solves – they have heavy crude that’s cheaper than Mexico’s
Matthew Philips 8-23-2013; Philips is an associate editor for Bloomberg Businessweek in New York; “Swapping U.S. Crude for Mexico's Heavy Oil Won't Really Work” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-06/swapping-u-dot-s-dot-crude-for-mexicos-heavy-oil-wont-really-work

What U.S. refiners really want is Canada’s heavy crude. While Mexican
AND
than the heavier grades that Valero’s Texas refiners are now capable of handling.
1NC---5
Telecom reform implementation will pass now, Pena Nieto is pushing, and it’s key to the Mexican economy
Patricia Mallen 3-31-2014 "Mexico's Telecom Reform Pits President Enrique Peña Nieto Against Billionaire Tycoon Carlos Slim Helú", , www.ibtimes.com/mexicos-telecom-reform-pits-president-enrique-pena-nieto-against-billionaire-tycoon-carlos-slim-helu

MEXICO CITY -- President Enrique Peña Nieto has been busy in his first year as
AND
and his son, it looks like the vote will spell a defeat.

Cooperation with the US is unpopular --- particularly with the PRI
Long 13 (Tom Long 4-16-2013 Doctoral research fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University, "Will tensions over security spoil the Obama-Peña Nieto Summit?” American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, aulablog.net/2013/04/16/will-tensions-over-security-spoil-the-obama-pena-nieto-summit/)

Peña Nieto’s political incentives do not point to the same, high-profile cooperation
AND
violations and the slow pace of judicial reform could also grow more serious.

Economic data proves lack of competition in the telecoms market is the largest internal link to the economy
Malkin 14 (Elisabeth Malkin, writer for the New York Times. 3/7/14. "New Rules to Reshape Telecom in Mexico".  www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/business/international/new-rules-to-reshape-telecom-in-mexico.html?_r=0)

The lack of serious competition in Mexico has kept prices high, has limited investment
AND
Mexican consumers $25.8 billion a year between 2005 and 2009.

Mexican economic decline causes mass migration and border terrorism
Brown 9, Michael, Undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the Department of Homeland Security, “Border Control: Collapse of Mexico Is A Homeland Security and National Security Issue,” 1/14, http://michaelbrowntoday.com/journal/2009/1/15/border-control-collapse-of-mexico-is-a-homeland-security-nat.html
By failing to secure the borders and control immigration, we have opened ourselves up
AND
States, just laying in wait to attack at an appropriately vulnerable time.

Terrorism leads to great power warfare — only scenario for escalation
Ayson, 10 — Professor of Strategic Studies and Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in New Zealand at the Victoria University of Wellington (Robert, “After a Terrorist Nuclear Attack: Envisaging Catalytic Effects”, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Volume 33, Issue 7, July 2010, InformaWorld)
A terrorist nuclear attack, and even the use of nuclear weapons in response by
AND
for the terrorists. This might not help the chances of nuclear restraint.

1NC---Russia

The spread was at 28 dollars in 2011, when your evidence was written – it’s collapsed since then and market forces always minimize the spread
Geoff King 2-21-2012;  Platts energy analysis, “Brent/WTI spread expected to be at $2-4 'normalcy' by 2015: CME” http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8961514

The current ICE Brent premium to NYMEX crude is very much a function of regional
AND
based on transportation costs and the quality differentials out there," Morsches said. 

The aff doesn’t solve Putin aggression---the time frame is too short---recent disagreements also disprove conflict
No Russian expansionism — not interested in conquering

Bandow, 12 (Doug, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties, “Op Ed: NATO and Libya: It’s Time To Retire a Fading Alliance”, 1/2/12, http://feb17.info/editorials/op-ed-nato-and-libya-its-time-to-retire-a-fading-alliance/)

The Cold War required an extraordinary defense commitment from the U.S. But
AND
Threaten that, and war might result, as Georgia learned in 2008.

No risk of Russian expansionism or aggression---they’re far too weak

Kaplan and Kaplan 11 – Robert D. Kaplan 11 is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, AND Stephen S. Kaplan is a research associate in the Brookings Institution, “America Primed” Feb 23 http://nationalinterest.org/article/america-primed-4892

But this last scenario, among the worst anyone can come up with, is
AND
the level of dominance elsewhere that America already enjoys in the Western Hemisphere.

Oil dependence deters Russian conflict
Abraham 02 (Spencer Abraham, Secretary, US Department of Energy, “Oil Diplomacy: Facts and Myths Behind Foreign Oil Dependency,” Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, Second Session, June 20, 2002, http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa80291.000/hfa80291_0.htm)
We are developing a strong bilateral relationship with Russia, now the second largest world
AND
rising Russian production significantly increases the supply diversity in the world oil market.

It also solves the Russian economy
Miller 10 (Gregory D. Miller, assistant professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma, “The Security Costs of Energy Independence,” Center for Strategic International Studies, The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 107-119, April 2010, http://www.asiaresearch.ir/files/10apr_Miller.pdf)
Russia is another potential danger spot because it is the only nuclear state, at
AND
Russia’s neighbors can afford the risk of a nuclear Russia suffering economic instability.
1NC---Heg
Structural advantages ensure unipolarity and bandwagoning
Haass 13 (Richard N., President – Council on Foreign Relations, “America Can Take a Breather. And It Should.”, New York Times, 6-22, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/america-can-take-a-breather-and-it-should.html)

Today, there are threats, but they tend to be regional, years away
AND
something like it. They are more interested in integration than in revolution.
Hegemonic stability theory is wrong
Fettweis 11 (Christopher J., Department of Political Science – Tulane University, “Free Riding or Restraint? Examining European Grand Strategy”, Comparative Strategy, 30:316–332, 9-26, EBSCO)

It is perhaps worth noting that there is no evidence to support a direct relationship
AND
global policeman. Those who think otherwise base their view on faith alone.

Heg causes war and prolif-recalcitrant power balancing takes out the benefits of heg
Monteiro 11 (Nuno P. Monteiro, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. “Unrest Assured: Why Unipolarity is not Peaceful”. http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00064)

A unipole carrying out a defensive-dominance strategy will seek to preserve all three
AND
shifted toward a strategy of offensive dominance, to which I turn next. 

Global nuclear war
Taylor 01  (Theodore, Chairman of NOVA, Former Nuclear Weapons Designer, Recipient of the US Atomic Energy Commission’s 1965 Lawrence Memorial Award and former Deputy Dir. of Defense Nuclear Agency, “Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”, in “Breakthrough: Emerging New Thinking”, http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/Breakthrough/book/chapters/taylor.html)
Nuclear proliferation - be it among nations or terrorists - greatly increases the chance of
AND
, the small nuclear war could easily escalate into a global nuclear war.

Unipolarity is bad –it wrecks stability
Richard Maher 11/12/10 – professor in the department of political science, Brown University (“The Paradox of American Unipolarity: Why the United States May Be Better Off in a Post-Unipolar World,” ScienceDirect, http://dl2af5jf3e.scholar.serialssolutions.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/?sid=googleandauinit=Randaulast=Maherandatitle=The+paradox+of+American+unipolarity:+Why+the+United+States+may+be+better+off+in+a+post-unipolar+worldandid=doi:10.1016/j.orbis.2010.10.003andtitle=Orbis+(Philadelphia)andvolume=55andissue=1anddate=2011andspage=53andissn=0030-4387)
To say that the end of unquestioned preeminence may be good for the United States
AND
have with Washington and to reinforce their security relationships with the United States.
Peaceful transition to multipolarity inevitable --- states will seek cooperation
Park 12 (Sang-Seek, professor at the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee University, “New World Order Emerging as U.S Hegemony Weakens”, Korea Herald, 4/12/2012, http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120411000390)

This dualistic approach reveals that U.S. hegemony is weakening but the U
AND
world order. Obama’s dualistic approach and the BRICs’ are symptomatic of this.
Decline causes retrenchment which solves their impact
MacDonald and Parent 11 (Paul K., Assistant Professor of Political Science at Williams College, Joseph M., Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, “Graceful Decline? The Surprising Success of Great Power Retrenchment,” International Security, Vol. 35, No. 4, Spring 2011, pp. 7–44, http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00034)

These arguments have grim implications for contemporary international politics. With the rise of new
AND
none of the declining powers that failed to retrench recovered their relative position.
The liberal international order will survive
Ikenberry 11 (May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, G. John, PhD, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, “The Future of the Liberal World Order,” http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67730/g-john-ikenberry/the-future-of-the-liberal-world-order)

For all these reasons, many observers have concluded that world politics is experiencing not
AND
and prosperity that it has provided since the middle of the twentieth century. 

Solvency – 1NC
Swaps fail and Mexico says no----THIS IS THE CONCLUSION OF THEIR ONLY INTERNAL LINK ARTICLE
Phillips, 13 ("Swapping U.S. Crude for Mexico's Heavy Oil Won't Really Work", Matthew is an associate editor for Bloomberg Businessweek, www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-06/swapping-u-dot-s-dot-crude-for-mexicos-heavy-oil-wont-really-work)
There are a few reasons why this doesn’t work. For starters, Mexico uses
AND
Company. ”Plus, I’m not sure how it really helps Mexico.”

The status quo solves the aff.
Brelsford, 14 ("Eagle Ford crude prompts upgrades at Valero’s Texas refineries", Robert is an OGJ Downstream Technology Editor, www.ogj.com/articles/2014/02/eagle-ford-crude-prompts-upgrades-at-valero-s-texas-refineries.html)
Valero Energy Corp., the largest US independent refiner-marketer, plans to invest
AND
refiners are willing to make the necessary investments to increase domestic crude processing.”

Refiners have an incentive to remodel.
Krauss, 14 ("Domestic Crude Oil Drives a Cautious Refining Revival", Clifford, March 3, www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/business/energy-environment/oil-boom-is-driving-a-revival-in-refining.html?_r=0)
Nevertheless an estimated 864,000 barrels a day of new fuel processing capacity is
AND

now, refiners need to refit their plants for light sweet crudes.

Capacity is rapidly expanding.
Kennedy, 14 ("U.S. Oil Refining Eyes Big Expansion Amid Shale Spike", Bruce, www.benzinga.com/markets/emerging-markets/14/03/4359853/u-s-oil-refining-eyes-big-expansion-amid-shale-spike)
As of early 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration
AND
by adding to existing plants so they can process the new shale oil.

Tournament: MBA | Round: 5 | Opponent: Dexter | Judge:
1nc da
Cuban biotech is strong because of robust government investment
Xinhua 13 – via Global Times, “Cuban Biotech Industry Expected to Double in Five Years: Officials”, 4-25, http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/777457.shtml#.Uqh4vtKIySo

Cuba's biotechnology industry is expected to double over the next five years, bringing in
AND
WHO, cancer claims around 31,000 lives each year in Cuba.

That’s because of the embargo- lack of US imports ensures long term government commitment to biotechnology- but funding is uncertain and the plan collapses the industry
Cárdenas, 9 – Bachelors in Economics, University of Havana and Masters in Economics, University of Leipzig (Andrés, “The Cuban Biotechnology Industry: Innovation and universal health care,” Institute for Institutional and Innovations Economics, University of Bremen, November, http://www.theairnet.org/files/research/cardenas/andres-cardenas_cubab_biotech_paper_2009.pdf)

Indeed, the development of the Cuban biotechnology industry is the result of very particular
AND
cover the entire value chain of a product (see below Closed Cycle).
Cuban key to global diffusion of biotech
Fawthrop 4 – Tom Fawthrop, Reporter at the Straits Times, “Cuba Ailing? Not Its Biomedical Industry”, Yale Global, 1-26, http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cuba-ailing-not-its-biomedical-industry

Yet Cuban biotechnology is now, among other things, leading the way in the
AND
-tech sector could become the locomotive of the entire Cuban economy.'

Biotech solves extinction
Trewavas 00 (Anthony, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology – University of Edinburgh, “GM Is the Best Option We Have”, AgBioWorld, 6-5, http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/articles/biotech-art/best_option.html)

In 535A.D. a volcano near the present Krakatoa exploded with the force
AND
accepting that technological advance may be the only buffer between us and annihilation.

1nc da
CIR will pass in January- budget deal passage made room for it
MNS 12/30 (Marshfield News Herald. "Reason for hope on immigration reform for 2014: column". www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/article/20131230/MNH06/312300163/Reason-hope-immigration-reform-2014-column)
For supporters of immigration reform, 2013 was a roller coaster of hope and frustration
AND
on immigration reform — it may be down, but it’s not out.
Drains capital – Backlash and hostage taking on unrelated priority legislation is empirically proven, likely– Cuba policy is totally unique
LeoGrande, 12
William M. LeoGrande School of Public Affairs American University, Professor of Government and a specialist in Latin American politics and U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America, Professor LeoGrande has been a frequent adviser to government and private sector agencies, 12/18/12, http://www.american.edu/clals/upload/LeoGrande-Fresh-Start.pdf

The Second Obama Administration Where in the executive branch will control over Cuba policy lie
AND
rarely happen unless the urgency of the problem forces policymakers to take action.
PC is key to brokering a deal and making Boehner cave
Schoen 1/3/14 (Doug Schoen, writer for Forbes. "A Look Ahead to 2014". www.forbes.com/sites/dougschoen/2014/01/03/a-look-ahead-to-2014/

All eyes will be on President Obama. He needs to show leadership on the
AND
follows that the President should reach out to him and welcome this development.

Visas are key to cybersecurity preparedness
McLarty 9 (Thomas F. III, President – McLarty Associates and Former White House Chief of Staff and Task Force Co-Chair, “U.S. Immigration Policy: Report of a CFR-Sponsored Independent Task Force”, 7-8, http://www.cfr.org/ publication/19759/us_immigration_policy.html)
We have seen, when you look at the table of the top 20 firms
AND
going to strengthen, I think, our system, our security needs.
Cyber-vulnerability causes great power nuclear war
Fritz 9 | Researcher for International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament Jason, researcher for International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, former Army officer and consultant, and has a master of international relations at Bond University, “Hacking Nuclear Command and Control,” July,  http://www.icnnd.org/latest/research/Jason_Fritz_Hacking_NC2.pdf
This paper will analyse the threat of cyber terrorism in regard to nuclear weapons.
AND
its own, without the need for compromising command and control centres directly.

1nc cp
The United States federal government should
-Close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility
-Ratify the Kyoto Protocol
-Join the International Criminal Court
-Ratify the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child
-Remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terror list
-Back Cuba’s entry into the Organization of American States
-back Brazil’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
- The United States federal government should substantially increase its information and communication technology assitance toward Cuba as outlined by the CSG evidence
The CP solves – it builds on previous communication assistance programs
CSG July 2010; The Cuba Study Group (CSG) in collaboration with the Brookings Institution, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization comprised of business and community leaders of Cuban descent who share a common interest and vision of a free and prosperous Cuba. “Empowering the Cuban People through Technology: Recommendations for Private and Public Sector Leaders” http://www.as-coa.org/articles/empowering-cuban-people-through-technology

The power of information technology and social media to fuel economic growth, enhance communications
AND
should enact the necessary legislation to authorize the above- mentioned policy recommendations.

And, inviting Brazil solves Latin American relations.
Sanchez 11 - W. Alejandro Sánchez is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus
AND
a front-runner for a seat in a restructured UN Security Council.)
During his attendance at a recent African Union summit, former Brazilian president Lula da
AND
step in making the Washington-Latin American relationship a partnership of equals.

Solves soft power- their author
Burgsdorff 09 – Ph. D in Political Science from Freiburg University, EU Fellow at the University of Miami (Sven Kühn von, "Problems and Opportunities for the Incoming Obama Administration", http://aei.pitt.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/11047/1/vonBurgsdorfUSvsCubalong09edi.pdf)//NG
In addition, the US needs to improve its international human rights reputation which was
AND
attempting to circumvent the ¶ restrictions contained in the Helms-Burton Act)

1nc cp
Text – The United States federal government should amend Title 22 of US Code (22 U.S.C. 6065) so that a transition government in Cuba is defined as a government that is taking appropriate steps to restitute and/or compensate United States citizens for property taken by the Cuban government, as outlined in the following addendum. The United States federal government should offer to negotiate a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Cuba that includes a Step-Down Restitution Policy.

Current language
Title 22-FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE CHAPTER 69A-CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD) SUBCHAPTER II-ASSISTANCE TO FREE AND INDEPENDENT CUBA
§6065. Requirements and factors for determining transition government
(a) Requirements
For the purposes of this chapter, a transition government in Cuba is a government that-
(1) has legalized all political activity;
(2) has released all political prisoners and allowed for investigations of Cuban prisons by appropriate international human rights organizations;
(3) has dissolved the present Department of State Security in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, including the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Rapid Response Brigades; and
(4) has made public commitments to organizing free and fair elections for a new government-
(A) to be held in a timely manner within a period not to exceed 18 months after the transition government assumes power;
(B) with the participation of multiple independent political parties that have full access to the media on an equal basis, including (in the case of radio, television, or other telecommunications media) in terms of allotments of time for such access and the times of day such allotments are given; and
(C) to be conducted under the supervision of internationally recognized observers, such as the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and other election monitors;

(5) has ceased any interference with Radio Marti or Television Marti broadcasts;
(6) makes public commitments to and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) establishing an independent judiciary;
(B) respecting internationally recognized human rights and basic freedoms as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory nation;
(C) allowing the establishment of independent trade unions as set forth in conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization, and allowing the establishment of independent social, economic, and political associations;

(7) does not include Fidel Castro or Raul Castro; and
(8) has given adequate assurances that it will allow the speedy and efficient distribution of assistance to the Cuban people.

(b) Additional factors
In addition to the requirements in subsection (a) of this section, in determining whether a transition government in Cuba is in power, the President shall take into account the extent to which that government-
(1) is demonstrably in transition from a communist totalitarian dictatorship to representative democracy;
(2) has made public commitments to, and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) effectively guaranteeing the rights of free speech and freedom of the press, including granting permits to privately owned media and telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba;
(B) permitting the reinstatement of citizenship to Cuban-born persons returning to Cuba;
(C) assuring the right to private property; and
(D) taking appropriate steps to return to United States citizens (and entities which are 50 percent or more beneficially owned by United States citizens) property taken by the Cuban Government from such citizens and entities on or after January 1, 1959, or to provide equitable compensation to such citizens and entities for such property;
(3) has extradited or otherwise rendered to the United States all persons sought by the United States Department of Justice for crimes committed in the United States; and
(4) has permitted the deployment throughout Cuba of independent and unfettered international human rights monitors.
(Pub. L. 104–114, title II, §205, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 811.)

Language post-counterplan
Title 22-FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE CHAPTER 69A-CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD) SUBCHAPTER II-ASSISTANCE TO FREE AND INDEPENDENT CUBA
§6065. Requirements and factors for determining transition government
(a) Requirements
For the purposes of this chapter, a transition government in Cuba is a government that is-
(1) has legalized all political activity;
(2) has released all political prisoners and allowed for investigations of Cuban prisons by appropriate international human rights organizations;
(3) has dissolved the present Department of State Security in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, including the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Rapid Response Brigades; and
(4) has made public commitments to organizing free and fair elections for a new government-
(A) to be held in a timely manner within a period not to exceed 18 months after the transition government assumes power;
(B) with the participation of multiple independent political parties that have full access to the media on an equal basis, including (in the case of radio, television, or other telecommunications media) in terms of allotments of time for such access and the times of day such allotments are given; and
(C) to be conducted under the supervision of internationally recognized observers, such as the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and other election monitors;

(5) has ceased any interference with Radio Marti or Television Marti broadcasts;
(6) makes public commitments to and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) establishing an independent judiciary;
(B) respecting internationally recognized human rights and basic freedoms as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory nation;
(C) allowing the establishment of independent trade unions as set forth in conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization, and allowing the establishment of independent social, economic, and political associations;

(7) does not include Fidel Castro or Raul Castro; and
(8) has given adequate assurances that it will allow the speedy and efficient distribution of assistance to the Cuban people.

(b) Additional factors
In addition to the requirements in subsection (a) of this section, in determining whether a transition government in Cuba is in power, the President shall take into account the extent to which that government-
(1) is demonstrably in transition from a communist totalitarian dictatorship to representative democracy;
(2) has made public commitments to, and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) effectively guaranteeing the rights of free speech and freedom of the press, including granting permits to privately owned media and telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba;
(B) permitting the reinstatement of citizenship to Cuban-born persons returning to Cuba;
(C) assuring the right to private property; and
(D) taking appropriate steps to return to United States citizens (and entities which are 50 percent or more beneficially owned by United States citizens) property taken by the Cuban Government from such citizens and entities on or after January 1, 1959, or to provide equitable compensation to such citizens and entities for such property;
(3) has extradited or otherwise rendered to the United States all persons sought by the United States Department of Justice for crimes committed in the United States; and
(4) has permitted the deployment throughout Cuba of independent and unfettered international human rights monitors.
(Pub. L. 104–114, title II, §205, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 811.)

Setting up a Bilateral Investment Treaty as a mechanism for compensation helps Cuba meet the only condition that is keeping the embargo in place
Mowry 99, Senior Counsel Xerox Corporation, 1999 (David, “Lifting the Embargo against Cuba Using Vietnam as a Model: A Policy Paper for Modernity” Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 25 Brooklyn J. Int'l L. 229, lexis)
The obstacles that prevent a President from lifting the embargo against Cuba arbitrarily would appear
AND
S. Government would not be liable for any losses.   *262 

Step-Down Restitution Policy is the best mechanism – flexibility in payment ensures appropriate and quick redress and means Cuba says yes
Espino 08, JD Candidate Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, 2008 (Daniel- President and Chairman of the Board of Puente de Jovenes Profesionales Cubanos  and President of the Hispanic Law Students Association, Spring, “Step-Down Restitution: A Proposal For An Equitable Resolution To Confiscated Cuban Property” Nova Law Review, 32 Nova L. Rev. 423, lexis)
 *451  V. IMPLEMENTATION The Step-Down Restitution Policy should be
AND
justice for Cuba's transgressions by allowing them to receive individualistic and equitable remediation.

The current embargo holds Cuba responsible for compensation for property taken during the Castro revolution –normalizing relations makes the US legally responsible for that compensation under the Takings Clause – that causes lawsuits against the federal government that collapses an effective transition and turns the case
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, 1995 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
B. Full Compensation as an Inflexible Standard In extreme cases, full compensation may
AND
cast a cloud over any progress in U.S.-Cuban relations.

Court clog diverts from judicial handling of terrorism cases
Taylor 99 (Stuart Jr. Taylor, “Irrational Excesses, Barbaric Penalties and Political Opportunism”, National Journal, February 27, 1999, Lexis)
So did another unhealthy trend, deplored in a Feb. 16 ABA task force
AND
criminal prohibitions, each filled with differing consequences for the same conduct.'' 

Nuclear terrorism is feasible and likely --- domestic strike triggers global nuclear war
Speice 06 (Patrick, JD Candidate, 47 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 1427, February, Lexis)
Terrorist groups could acquire a nuclear weapon by a number of methods, including "
AND
draw in the United States and escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.

Tournament: Emory | Round: 4 | Opponent: Dexter | Judge: Abby Schirmer
1nc
Text – The United States federal government should amend Title 22 of US Code (22 U.S.C. 6065) so that a transition government in Cuba is defined as a government that is taking appropriate steps to restitute and/or compensate United States citizens for property taken by the Cuban government, as outlined in the following addendum. The United States federal government should offer to negotiate a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Cuba that includes a Step-Down Restitution Policy.

Setting up a Bilateral Investment Treaty as a mechanism for compensation helps Cuba meet the only condition that is keeping the embargo in place
Mowry 99, Senior Counsel Xerox Corporation, 1999 (David, “Lifting the Embargo against Cuba Using Vietnam as a Model: A Policy Paper for Modernity” Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 25 Brooklyn J. Int'l L. 229, lexis)
The obstacles that prevent a President from lifting the embargo against Cuba arbitrarily would appear
AND
S. Government would not be liable for any losses.   *262 

Step-Down Restitution Policy is the best mechanism – flexibility in payment ensures appropriate and quick redress and means Cuba says yes
Espino 08, JD Candidate Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, 2008 (Daniel- President and Chairman of the Board of Puente de Jovenes Profesionales Cubanos  and President of the Hispanic Law Students Association, Spring, “Step-Down Restitution: A Proposal For An Equitable Resolution To Confiscated Cuban Property” Nova Law Review, 32 Nova L. Rev. 423, lexis)
 *451  V. IMPLEMENTATION The Step-Down Restitution Policy should be
AND
justice for Cuba's transgressions by allowing them to receive individualistic and equitable remediation.

The current embargo holds Cuba responsible for compensation for property taken during the Castro revolution –normalizing relations makes the US legally responsible for that compensation under the Takings Clause – that causes lawsuits against the federal government that collapses an effective transition and turns the case
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, 1995 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
B. Full Compensation as an Inflexible Standard In extreme cases, full compensation may
AND
cast a cloud over any progress in U.S.-Cuban relations.

Court clog diverts from judicial handling of terrorism cases
Taylor 99 (Stuart Jr. Taylor, “Irrational Excesses, Barbaric Penalties and Political Opportunism”, National Journal, February 27, 1999, Lexis)
So did another unhealthy trend, deplored in a Feb. 16 ABA task force
AND
criminal prohibitions, each filled with differing consequences for the same conduct.'' 

Nuclear terrorism is feasible and likely --- domestic strike triggers global nuclear war
Speice 06 (Patrick, JD Candidate, 47 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 1427, February, Lexis)
Terrorist groups could acquire a nuclear weapon by a number of methods, including "
AND
draw in the United States and escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.

Tournament: Michigan | Round: 4 | Opponent: Chattahoochee | Judge: Nathan Bennett
Visas are key to cybersecurity preparedness
McLarty 9 (Thomas F. III, President – McLarty Associates and Former White House Chief of Staff and Task Force Co-Chair, “U.S. Immigration Policy: Report of a CFR-Sponsored Independent Task Force”, 7-8, http://www.cfr.org/ publication/19759/us_immigration_policy.html)
We have seen, when you look at the table of the top 20 firms
AND
going to strengthen, I think, our system, our security needs.
Cyber-vulnerability causes great power nuclear war
Fritz 9 | Researcher for International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament Jason, researcher for International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, former Army officer and consultant, and has a master of international relations at Bond University, “Hacking Nuclear Command and Control,” July,  http://www.icnnd.org/latest/research/Jason_Fritz_Hacking_NC2.pdf
This paper will analyse the threat of cyber terrorism in regard to nuclear weapons.
AND
its own, without the need for compromising command and control centres directly.

Tournament: MBA | Round: Quarters | Opponent: Whitney Young | Judge: Sedelmyer, Lee, Caniff
1nc chow
Their description of suffering expands Western knowledge production and contributes to a discourse that makes human rights abuses and colonialism inevitable
BYSTROM 2012 - Kerry L. is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Research Program on Humanitarianism at the Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs, "Spectacular Rhetorics: Human Rights Visions, Recognitions, Feminisms (review)." Human Rights Quarterly 34.4 (2012): 1214-1217. Project MUSE) *gender modified

Over the past decade, a growing body of work has brought humanities perspectives to
AND
deserves this time, thought, and celebration. End Page 1217
The affirmative attempts to speak from a concealed epistemic location in the Western academy- privileges hegemonic and Eurocentric knowledge.
GROSFOGUEL 2007 (Ramon, Professor Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, “The Epistemic Decolonial Turn” Cultural Studies, Vol 21 Issue 2-3, p 211-223, TandF Online)
*We do not agree with this card’s gender language
Epistemological Critique The first point to discuss is the contribution of racial/ethnic and
AND
critique to our knowledge production and to our concept of world-system?

Attempting to know the other from their concealed position ensures genocide and turns the case
CHOW 2006 - Professor Comparative  Lit at Brown, (Rey, “The Age of the World Target” p 40-42)
*we don’t endorse this card’s gendered language
Often under the modest and apparently innocuous agendas of fact gathering and documentation, the
AND
literature into a full-scale preoccupation with identity and its construction."57

Alternative is to  vote negative and reject their scholarship in favor of interrogation of their privileged position
CHOW 1993 - Professor Comparative Lit at Brown, (Rey, “Writing Diaspora” p 15-17 google books)
*We don’t endorse this card’s gender language
While the struggle for hegemony remains necessary for many reasons-especially in cases where
AND
off field, in the military no less than in the academic sense?

Tournament: Pace RR | Round: 4 | Opponent: Stratford | Judge: Ryan Wash, Jeremey Hammond

1. Soft power emboldens North Korea – causes prolif and Korean war
   Kuhner 9, Jeffrey president of the Edmund Burke Institute, 6/6, Washington Times, “Another Korean War?”, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/06/another-korean-war/
   North Korea threatens to engulf the Korean Peninsula in an all-out war.
   AND
   Kim's iron fist - one that has smashed Uncle Sam in the face.
   Nuke war
   Hayes and Hamel-Green, 10 – *Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development, AND  Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development act Victoria University (1/5/10, Executive Dean at Victoria, “The Path Not Taken, the Way Still Open: Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,” http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/10001HayesHamalGreen.pdf)
   The international community is increasingly aware that cooperative diplomacy is the most productive way to
   AND
   threat but a global one that warrants priority consideration from the international community. 

2. Soft power hinders US-Japan Alliance
Matsuda 7, Takeshi, professor of American history at the Graduate School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, “Soft Power and its Perils: US cultural policy in Early Post war Japan and permanent dependency” http://books.google.com/books?id=1S6sAAAAIAAJandprintsec=frontcover#v=onepageandqandf=true
Unfortunately, on both sides of the Pacific excessive pride, a short¬sighted lust for
AND
about the U.S. reactions to whatever action they might take.
Alliance key to prevent global nuclear war
INSS, 2k (Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, “The United States and Japan: Advancing Toward a Mature Partnership”, October 2000, http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SR_01/SR_Japan.htm)
Major war in Europe is inconceivable for at least a generation, but the prospects
AND
U.S.-Japan alliance is central to America’s global security strategy.

3. Soft power can’t solve conflict
Gray 11 COLIN GRAY is Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, England. “Hard Power and Soft Power: The Utility of Military Force as an instrument of policy in the 21st century” pdf
Unfortunately, although the concept of American¶ soft power is true gold in theory
AND
urgently requires¶ more rigorous examination than it has received thus¶ far.

4. Turns their heg scenario- soft power ensures multipolar wars of aggression – causes overall American decline
Kincaid 12, Caitlin member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation, cites Kim Holmes, Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation, 2/24 “Obama Doctrine leaves world less safe” http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/24/obama-doctrine-leaves-world-less-safe/
In avoiding a leadership role, U.S. actions in the Middle East
AND
stability has been continually damaged, creating a more dangerous world for all.

5. Soft power theory is bankrupt — conflates grand strategy and policy
Afrasiabi, 7 – Ph.D. and author on Iran (Kaveh, “The illusion of American 'smart power'”, Asia Times, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK13Ak02.html)
Over the years, Nye has been anything but shy about claiming credit for his
AND
vicious policy circle, bound to reintroduce failed US policies under new guises.

Tournament: TOC | Round: 2 | Opponent: Hooch | Judge: Colin M
1nc – disad
European investment in Cuba is set to massively increase with the new EU-Cuban political deal --- but removing the embargo now crowds-out EU business and throws a wrench in negotiations
Grogg 4/1/14 (Patricia Grogg, Inter Press Service reporter, “Wanted: Foreign Investment in Cuba,” April 1, 2014, http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/wanted-foreign-investment-cuba/)
HAVANA, Apr 1 2014 (IPS) - A new law opening Cuba up
AND
puts the EU in a “privileged position,” said López-Levy.
The status quo deal guarantees massive EU economic growth --- the plan results in colossal economic losses for the EU
Foiles 14 (Lauren Foiles, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, “Washington’s Missed Opportunities: Cuba Successfully Engaging the World,” COHA, March 5, 2014, http://www.coha.org/washingtons-missed-opportunities-cuba-successfully-engaging-the-world/)
Despite the recent increase in chatter surrounding the Atlantic poll on U.S.
AND
and diplomatic/cultural exchanges that Washington continues to voluntarily exclude itself from.
The Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement
The accord has been in the works since January, 2013 when the head of
AND
press for an expansion of political freedoms on the island. 7
Like the “Common Position” that the EU adopted in 1996 in response to
AND
the position will remain in place until the cooperation accord is agreed upon.
Both the EU and Cuba are acting with pragmatism as each party recognizes the colossal
AND
for scores of other nations to situate themselves favorably in Cuba’s liberalizing markets.
That leads to multiple scenarios for global nuclear war and international collapse
Wright 12 (Thomas Wright, fellow with the Managing Global Order at the Brookings Institution, “What if Europe Fails?” The Washington Quarterly Summer 2012, http://csis.org/files/publication/twq12SummerWright.pdf)
Would the failure of the Euro really mean the beginning of the end of democracy
AND
its internal crisis – and would, finally, undermine the multilateral order.

Tournament: Contact Information | Round: 1 | Opponent: Glenbrook North | Judge:
tommyd4410@gmail.com

Tournament: Greenhill Round Robin | Round: 1 | Opponent: Bishop Guertin | Judge: Tim Barouch  Dave Arnett
a) Resolved – reflects a legislative forum
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 98 (dictionary.com)
Resolved: 5. To express, as an opinion or determination, by resolution and vote; to declare or decide by a formal vote; -- followed by a clause; as, the house resolved (or, it was resolved by the house) that no money should be apropriated (or, to appropriate no money).

b) Substantially – it mandates reality and excludes imagination
Wollman 93 (Circuit Judge, US Court of Appeals – 8th Circuit, Kansas City Power and Light Company, a Missouri corporation, Appellee, v. Ford Motor Credit Company, a Delaware corporation; McDonnell Douglas Finance Corporation, a Delaware corporation; HEI Investment Corp., a Hawaii corporation, Appellants, 995 F.2d 1422; 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 13755, L/N)
Instruction No. 10 was not given in isolation, however. The district court's instructions also contained a definition of "substantial." Instruction No. 11 defined "substantial" as meaning "true, real or likely to materialize" and as not meaning "imaginary or unlikely to materialize." This instruction properly limited the potential bases for the jury's decision, which is the essential function of jury instructions. When combined with the contract and the verdict-directing instructions, *1432 which tracked the operative language of the contract, Instruction No. 11 required the jury to find that KCPL had determined a real risk, not some imaginary hypothetical risk premised solely on a reduction in the DRD. Because the contract provided only one means of creating a risk of making an indemnity payment--a demand notice from an Investor--the jury's discretion was properly channelled into deciding whether KCPL had sufficiently studied and honestly considered the likelihood of receiving such a demand notice. That determination is all that the contract required.

c) Should – indicates obligation or duty
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 8 (“should”, 2008, http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/should?view=uk)
should modal verb (3rd sing. should) 1 used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness. 2 used to indicate what is probable. 3 formal expressing the conditional mood. 4 used in a clause with ‘that’ after a main clause describing feelings. 5 used in a clause with ‘that’ expressing purpose. 6 (in the first person) expressing a polite request or acceptance. 7 (in the first person) expressing a conjecture or hope.

Impacts- 

1.) Debate over a controversial point of action creates argumentative stasis—that’s key to avoid a devolution of debate into competing truth claims, which destroys the decision-making benefits of the activity
Steinberg and Freeley 08 (Steinberg, lecturer of communication studies – University of Miami, and Freeley, Boston based attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil rights law, ‘8
(David L. and Austin J., Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making p. 45)

Debate is a means of settling differences, so there must be a difference of opinion or a conflict of interest before there can be a debate. If everyone is in agreement on a tact or value or policy, there is no need for debate: the matter can be settled by unanimous consent. Thus, for example, it would be pointless to attempt to debate "Resolved: That two plus two equals four," because there is simply no controversy about this statement. (Controversy is an essential prerequisite of debate. Where there is no clash of ideas, proposals, interests, or expressed positions on issues, there is no debate. In addition, debate cannot produce effective decisions without clear identification of a question or questions to be answered. For example, general argument may occur about the broad topic of illegal immigration. How many illegal immigrants are in the United States? What is the impact of illegal immigration and immigrants on our economy? What is their impact on our communities? Do they commit crimes? Do they take jobs from American workers? Do they pay taxes? Do they require social services? Is it a problem that some do not speak English? Is it the responsibility of employers to discourage illegal immigration by not hiring undocumented workers? Should they have the opportunity- to gain citizenship? Docs illegal immigration pose a security threat to our country? Do illegal immigrants do work that American workers are unwilling to do? Are their rights as workers and as human beings at risk due to their status? Are they abused by employers, law enforcement, housing, and businesses? I low are their families impacted by their status? What is the moral and philosophical obligation of a nation state to maintain its borders? Should we build a wall on the Mexican border, establish a national identification can!, or enforce existing laws against employers? Should we invite immigrants to become U.S. citizens? Surely you can think of many more concerns to be addressed by a conversation about the topic area of illegal immigration. Participation in this "debate" is likely to be emotional and intense. However, it is not likely to be productive or useful without focus on a particular question and identification of a line demarcating sides in the controversy. To be discussed and resolved effectively, controversies must be stated clearly. Vague understanding results in unfocused deliberation and poor decisions, frustration, and emotional distress, as evidenced by the failure of the United States Congress to make progress on the immigration debate during the summer of 2007.
Someone disturbed by the problem of the growing underclass of poorly educated, socially disenfranchised youths might observe, "Public schools are doing a terrible job! They are overcrowded, and many teachers are poorly qualified in their subject areas. Even the best teachers can do little more than struggle to maintain order in their classrooms." That same concerned citizen, facing a complex range of issues, might arrive at an unhelpful decision, such as "We ought to do something about this" or. worse. "It's too complicated a problem to deal with." Groups of concerned citizens worried about the state of public education could join together to express their frustrations, anger, disillusionment, and emotions regarding the schools, but without a focus for their discussions, they could easily agree about the sorry state of education without finding points of clarity or potential solutions. A gripe session would follow. But if a precise question is posed—such as "What can be done to improve public education?"—then a more profitable area of discussion is opened up simply by placing a focus on the search for a concrete solution step. One or more judgments can be phrased in the form of debate propositions, motions for parliamentary debate, or bills for legislative assemblies. The statements "Resolved: That the federal government should implement a program of charter schools in at-risk communities" and "Resolved: That the state of Florida should adopt a school voucher program" more clearly identify specific ways of dealing with educational problems in a manageable form, suitable for debate. They provide specific policies to be investigated and aid discussants in identifying points of difference.
To have a productive debate, which facilitates effective decision making by directing and placing limits on the decision to be made, the basis for argument should be clearly defined. If we merely talk about "homelessness" or "abortion" or "crime'* or "global warming" we are likely to have an interesting discussion but not to establish profitable basis for argument. For example, the statement "Resolved: That the pen is mightier than the sword" is debatable, yet fails to provide much basis for clear argumentation. If we take this statement to mean that the written word is more effective than physical force for some purposes, we can identify a problem area: the comparative effectiveness of writing or physical force for a specific purpose.
Although we now have a general subject, we have not yet stated a problem. It is still too broad, too loosely worded to promote well-organized argument. What sort of writing are we concerned with—poems, novels, government documents, website development, advertising, or what? What does "effectiveness" mean in this context? What kind of physical force is being compared—fists, dueling swords, bazookas, nuclear weapons, or what? A more specific question might be. "Would a mutual defense treaty or a visit by our fleet be more effective in assuring Liurania of our support in a certain crisis?" The basis for argument could be phrased in a debate proposition such as "Resolved: That the United States should enter into a mutual defense treatv with Laurania." Negative advocates might oppose this proposition by arguing that fleet maneuvers would be a better solution. This is not to say that debates should completely avoid creative interpretation of the controversy by advocates, or that good debates cannot occur over competing interpretations of the controversy; in fact, these sorts of debates may be very engaging. The point is that debate is best facilitated by the guidance provided by focus on a particular point of difference, which will be outlined in the following discussion.

Decisionmaking is the most portable skill—key to all facets of life and advocacy
Steinberg, lecturer of communication studies – University of Miami, and Freeley, Boston based attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil rights law, ‘8
(David L. and Austin J., Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making p. 9-10)

After several days of intense debate, first the United States House of Representatives and then the U.S. Senate voted to authorize President George W. Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction as required by United Nations's resolutions. Debate about a possible military* action against Iraq continued in various governmental bodies and in the public for six months, until President Bush ordered an attack on Baghdad, beginning Operation Iraqi Freedom, the military campaign against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. He did so despite the unwillingness of the U.N. Security Council to support the military action, and in the face of significant international opposition.
Meanwhile, and perhaps equally difficult for the parties involved, a young couple deliberated over whether they should purchase a large home to accommodate their growing family or should sacrifice living space to reside in an area with better public schools; elsewhere a college sophomore reconsidered his major and a senior her choice of law school, graduate school, or a job. Each of these* situations called for decisions to be made. Each decision maker worked hard to make well-reasoned decisions.
Decision making is a thoughtful process of choosing among a variety of options for acting or thinking. It requires that the decider make a choice. Life demands decision making. We make countless individual decisions every day. To make some of those decisions, we work hard to employ care and consideration; others seem to just happen. Couples, families, groups of friends, and coworkers come together to make choices, and decision-making homes from committees to juries to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations make decisions that impact us all. Every profession requires effective and ethical decision making, as do our school, community, and social organizations.
We all make many decisions even- day. To refinance or sell one's home, to buy a high-performance SUV or an economical hybrid car. what major to select, what to have for dinner, what candidate CO vote for. paper or plastic, all present lis with choices. Should the president deal with an international crisis through military invasion or diplomacy? How should the U.S. Congress act to address illegal immigration?
Is the defendant guilty as accused? Tlie Daily Show or the ball game? And upon what information should I rely to make my decision? Certainly some of these decisions are more consequential than others. Which amendment to vote for, what television program to watch, what course to take, which phone plan to purchase, and which diet to pursue all present unique challenges. At our best, we seek out research and data to inform our decisions. Yet even the choice of which information to attend to requires decision making. In 2006, TIMI: magazine named YOU its "Person of the Year." Congratulations! Its selection was based on the participation not of ''great men" in the creation of history, but rather on the contributions of a community of anonymous participants in the evolution of information. Through blogs. online networking. You Tube. Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia, and many other "wikis," knowledge and "truth" are created from the bottom up, bypassing the authoritarian control of newspeople. academics, and publishers. We have access to infinite quantities of information, but how do we sort through it and select the best information for our needs?
The ability of every decision maker to make good, reasoned, and ethical decisions relies heavily upon their ability to think critically. Critical thinking enables one to break argumentation down to its component parts in order to evaluate its relative validity and strength. Critical thinkers are better users of information, as well as better advocates.
Colleges and universities expect their students to develop their critical thinking skills and may require students to take designated courses to that end. The importance and value of such study is widely recognized.
Much of the most significant communication of our lives is conducted in the form of debates. These may take place in intrapersonal communications, in which we weigh the pros and cons of an important decision in our own minds, or they may take place in interpersonal communications, in which we listen to arguments intended to influence our decision or participate in exchanges to influence the decisions of others.
Our success or failure in life is largely determined by our ability to make wise decisions for ourselves and to influence the decisions of others in ways that are beneficial to us. Much of our significant, purposeful activity is concerned with making decisions. Whether to join a campus organization, go to graduate school, accept a job oiler, buy a car or house, move to another city, invest in a certain stock, or vote for Garcia—these are just a few of the thousands of decisions we may have to make. Often, intelligent self-interest or a sense of responsibility will require us to win the support of others. We may want a scholarship or a particular job for ourselves, a customer for out product, or a vote for our favored political candidate.

2. Dialogue Unbridled affirmation outside the game space makes research impossible and destroys dialogue in debate
Hanghoj 8
http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Information_til/Studerende_ved_SDU/Din_uddannelse/phd_hum/afhandlinger/2009/ThorkilHanghoej.pdf
 Thorkild Hanghøj, Copenhagen, 2008
 Since this PhD project began in 2004, the present author has been affiliated with DREAM (Danish
Research Centre on Education and Advanced Media Materials), which is located at the Institute of
Literature, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Research visits have
taken place at the Centre for Learning, Knowledge, and Interactive Technologies (L-KIT), the
Institute of Education at the University of Bristol and the institute formerly known as Learning Lab
Denmark at the School of Education, University of Aarhus, where I currently work as an assistant
professor.
Debate games are often based on pre-designed scenarios that include descriptions of issues to be debated, educational goals, game goals, roles, rules, time frames etc. In this way, debate games differ from textbooks and everyday classroom instruction as debate scenarios allow teachers and students to actively imagine, interact and communicate within a domain-specific game space. However, instead of mystifying debate games as a “magic circle” (Huizinga, 1950), I will try to overcome the epistemological dichotomy between “gaming” and “teaching” that tends to dominate discussions of educational games. In short, educational gaming is a form of teaching. As mentioned, education and games represent two different semiotic domains that both embody the three faces of knowledge: assertions, modes of representation and social forms of organisation (Gee, 2003; Barth, 2002; cf. chapter 2). In order to understand the interplay between these different domains and their interrelated knowledge forms, I will draw attention to a central assumption in Bakhtin’s dialogical philosophy. According to Bakhtin, all forms of communication and culture are subject to centripetal and centrifugal forces (Bakhtin, 1981). A centripetal force is the drive to impose one version of the truth, while a centrifugal force involves a range of possible truths and interpretations. This means that any form of expression involves a duality of centripetal and centrifugal forces: “Every concrete utterance of a speaking subject serves as a point where centrifugal as well as centripetal forces are brought to bear” (Bakhtin, 1981: 272). If we take teaching as an example, it is always affected by centripetal and centrifugal forces in the on-going negotiation of “truths” between teachers and students. In the words of Bakhtin: “Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction” (Bakhtin, 1984a: 110). Similarly, the dialogical space of debate games also embodies centrifugal and centripetal forces. Thus, the election scenario of The Power Game involves centripetal elements that are mainly determined by the rules and outcomes of the game, i.e. the election is based on a limited time frame and a fixed voting procedure. Similarly, the open-ended goals, roles and resources represent centrifugal elements and create virtually endless possibilities for researching, preparing,   presenting, debating and evaluating a variety of key political issues. Consequently, the actual process of enacting a game scenario involves a complex negotiation between these centrifugal/centripetal forces that are inextricably linked with the teachers and students’ game activities. In this way, the enactment of The Power Game is a form of teaching that combines different pedagogical practices (i.e. group work, web quests, student presentations) and learning resources (i.e. websites, handouts, spoken language) within the interpretive frame of the election scenario. Obviously, tensions may arise if there is too much divergence between educational goals and game goals. This means that game facilitation requires a balance between focusing too narrowly on the rules or “facts” of a game (centripetal orientation) and a focusing too broadly on the contingent possibilities and interpretations of the game scenario (centrifugal orientation). For Bakhtin, the duality of centripetal/centrifugal forces often manifests itself as a dynamic between “monological” and “dialogical” forms of discourse. Bakhtin illustrates this point with the monological discourse of the Socrates/Plato dialogues in which the teacher never learns anything new from the students, despite Socrates’ ideological claims to the contrary (Bakhtin, 1984a). Thus, discourse becomes monologised when “someone who knows and possesses the truth instructs someone who is ignorant of it and in error”, where “a thought is either affirmed or repudiated” by the authority of the teacher (Bakhtin, 1984a: 81). In contrast to this, dialogical pedagogy fosters inclusive learning environments that are able to expand upon students’ existing knowledge and collaborative construction of “truths” (Dysthe, 1996). At this point, I should clarify that Bakhtin’s term “dialogic” is both a descriptive term (all utterances are per definition dialogic as they address other utterances as parts of a chain of communication) and a normative term as dialogue is an ideal to be worked for against the forces of “monologism” (Lillis, 2003: 197-8). In this project, I am mainly interested in describing the dialogical space of debate games. At the same time, I agree with Wegerif that “one of the goals of education, perhaps the most important goal, should be dialogue as an end in itself” (Wegerif, 2006: 61). 

Dialogue is the biggest impact—the process of discussion precedes any truth claim by magnifying the benefits of any discussion
Morson 4
http://www.flt.uae.ac.ma/elhirech/baktine/0521831059.pdf#page=331
Northwestern Professor,  Prof. Morson's work ranges over a variety of areas: literary theory (especially narrative); the history of ideas, both Russian and European; a variety of literary genres (especially satire, utopia, and the novel); and his favorite writers -- Chekhov, Gogol, and, above all, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. He is especially interested in the relation of literature to philosophy. 

A belief in truly dialogic ideological becoming would lead to schools that were quite different. In such schools, the mind would be populated with a complexity of voices and perspectives it had not known, and the student would learn to think with those voices, to test ideas and experiences against them, and to shape convictions that are innerly persuasive in response. This very process would be central. Students would sense that whatever word they believed to be innerly persuasive was only tentatively so: the process of dialogue continues.We must keep the conversation going, and formal education only initiates the process. The innerly persuasive discourse would not be final, but would be, like experience itself, ever incomplete and growing. As Bakhtin observes of the innerly persuasive word: Its creativity and productiveness consist precisely in the fact that such a word awakens new and independent words, that it organizes masses of our words from within, and does not remain in an isolated and static condition. It is not so much interpreted by us as it is further, that is, freely, developed, applied to new material, new conditions; it enters into interanimating relationships with new contexts. . . . The semantic structure of an innerly persuasive discourse is not finite, it is open; in each of the new contexts that dialogize it, this discourse is able to reveal ever newer ways to mean. (DI, 345–6)    We not only learn, we also learn to learn, and we learn to learn best when we engage in a dialogue with others and ourselves. We appropriate the world of difference, and ourselves develop new potentials. Those potentials allow us to appropriate yet more voices. Becoming becomes endless becoming. We talk, we listen, and we achieve an open-ended wisdom. Difference becomes an opportunity (see Freedman and Ball, this volume). Our world manifests the spirit that Bakhtin attributed to Dostoevsky: “nothing conclusive has yet taken place in the world, the ultimate word of the world and about the world has not yet been spoken, the world is open and free, everything is in the future and will always be in the future.”3 Such a world becomes our world within, its dialogue lives within us, and we develop the potentials of our ever-learning selves. Letmedraw some inconclusive conclusions, which may provoke dialogue. Section I of this volume, “Ideologies in Dialogue: Theoretical Considerations” and Bakhtin’s thought in general suggest that we learn best when we are actually learning to learn. We engage in dialogue with ourselves and others, and the most important thing is the value of the open-ended process itself. Section II, “Voiced, Double Voiced, and Multivoiced Discourses in Our Schools” suggests that a belief in truly dialogic ideological becoming would lead to schools that were quite different. In such schools, the mind would be populated with a complexity of voices and perspectives it had not known, and the student would learn to think with those voices, to test ideas and experiences against them, and to shape convictions that are innerly persuasive in response. Teachers would not be trying to get students to hold the right opinions but to sense the world from perspectives they would not have encountered or dismissed out of hand. Students would develop the habit of getting inside the perspectives of other groups and other people. Literature in particular is especially good at fostering such dialogic habits. Section III, “Heteroglossia in a Changing World” may invite us to learn that dialogue involves really listening to others, hearing them not as our perspective would categorize what they say, but as they themselves would categorize what they say, and only then to bring our own perspective to bear. We talk, we listen, and we achieve an open-ended wisdom. The chapters in this volume seem to suggest that we view learning as a perpetual process. That was perhaps Bakhtin’s favorite idea: that to appreciate life, or dialogue, we must see value not only in achieving this or that result, but also in recognizing that honest and open striving in a world of uncertainty and difference is itself the most important thing. What we must do is keep the conversation going.

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: 1 | Opponent: Forest Park | Judge: Mike Speer
See 1nc Framework shell for round 1 of the Greenhill RR

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: Octas | Opponent: Bronx Science | Judge: Zach Burdette, Tyler Engler, Rebecca Kuang
Same as the plan text but replaced "mexico" with "china"

Doing it with china reduces energy inequality
UNDP 07 (United Nations Development Programme. "Energy and Poverty in China". United Nations. regionalcentrebangkok.undp.or.th/practices/energy_env/rep-por/documents/GAP_Reports/China.pdf)
As a result of rapid economic growth, China has seen significant progress¶ in
AND
¶ ensuring the provision of low-cost energy services to poor people.

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: Octas | Opponent: Bronx Science | Judge: Zach Burdette, Tyler Engler, Rebecca Kuang
Pact for Mexico is guaranteeing cross-party unity --- that enables a balanced set of policy reforms
Wood 9-10 (Duncan 2013, Director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “The Expert Take: Peña Nieto’s fiscal reform and the consolidation of the Grand Bargain”)

The political calculation may be more crucial, however. First, by refusing to
AND
which in turn increases the probability of future legislative success for the government.
Political capital is key --- and the signal of the Pact solves economic growth
Corpart 13 (Guillaume and Georgia Krivokapich May 2013; Guillaume Corpart is the Managing Director of Americas Market Intelligence and a veteran of Latin American competitive intelligence and strategy consulting. “President Peña Nieto's Reforms and What They Mean for Business in Mexico,”  http://americasmi.com/en_US/expertise/articles-trends/page/president-pena-nietos-reforms-and-what-they-mean-for-bussiness-in-mexico)

The reforms Mexico’s new President, Enrique Peña Nieto, has introduced in the first
AND
at boosting the economic growth rate to 5-6 a year.
collapses Nieto’s political capital
Melgar 12 (Lourdes Summer 2012; director of the Center for Sustainability and Business at EGADE Business School of the Tecnológico de Monterrey. “Will Mexico's incoming administration finally end the iconic state oil monopoly?” http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/3781)

Conventional wisdom holds that Mexico’s energy sector will not change until the country faces a
AND
to reach the compromises and build the agreements necessary to make this happen.

Cooperation with the US is unpopular --- particularly with the PRI
Long 13 (Tom Long 4-16-2013 Doctoral research fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University, "Will tensions over security spoil the Obama-Peña Nieto Summit?” American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, aulablog.net/2013/04/16/will-tensions-over-security-spoil-the-obama-pena-nieto-summit/)

Peña Nieto’s political incentives do not point to the same, high-profile cooperation
AND
violations and the slow pace of judicial reform could also grow more serious.

Mexican collapse jacks the dollar
Chase 96 (Robert S. Chase, PhD Candidate – Economics Yale U., Et Al., Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 1996, Lexis)

What really defines a pivotal states is its capacity to affect regional and international stability
AND
, they have. But other select states also require close American attention.
Nuclear war
Porter 6 (Dave, Director of Business Development-Structures – General Dynamics, “Oregon Steel”, Blue Oregon, 12-8, http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/12/ff_oregon_steel.html)

There could be a soft landing or a domestic and international disaster. As Clyde
AND
need to give our children the skills to get through such a crisis.

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: Semis | Opponent: Centennial | Judge: Andrew Arsht, Jordanna Sternberg, Kayla Summers
THA results in massive US natural gas development
Simmons 13 – B.A. Economics @ Utah State U, J.D. @ George Mason, Director of Regulatory and State Affairs @ Institute for Energy Research (Daniel, “U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement: A Rare Victory for Oil and Gas in the Obama Era, 4/30/13, http://www.masterresource.org/2013/04/u-s-mexico-transboundary-hydrocarbons-agreement/)
The Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement, enacted after decades of indecision between Mexico and the United
AND
skyrocketing on private and state lands but remaining dormant on federal government lands. 

DOE will limit LNG exports now because of concerns about domestic supply and demand – the plan resolves those concerns and triggers exports
Charles Ebinger et al 12, a senior fellow and director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution; Kevin Massy, Assistant Director of the Energy Security Initiative at Brookings; and Govinda Avasarala, Senior Research Assistant in the Energy Security Initiative at Brookings, May 2012, “Liquid Markets: Assessing the Case for U.S. Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas,” http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/5/0220lng20exports20ebinger/0502_lng_exports_ebinger.pdf
From the perspective of the U.S. federal government, the issue of
AND
affect domestic demand for —and therefore domestic prices of —natural gas. 

U.S. exports destroy the Russian economy
Tom Choi 13, Natural Gas Market Leader, Deloitte MarketPoint LLC; and Peter J. Robertson, Independent Senior Advisor, Oil and Gas, Deloitte LLP, January 2013, “Exporting the American Renaissance: Global impacts of LNG exports from the United States,” http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local20Assets/Documents/Energy_us_er/us_er_GlobalImpactUSLNGExports_AmericanRenaissance_Jan2013.pdf
Russia, the leading gas exporter to Europe, appears to be especially hard hit
AND
competitive basis or be relegated to just selling its minimum take contracted volumes.

Goes nuclear---extinction
Sheldon Filger 9, author and blogger for the Huffington Post, “Russian Economy Faces Disastrous Free Fall Contraction” http://www.globaleconomiccrisis.com/blog/archives/356
In Russia, historically, economic health and political stability are intertwined to a degree
AND
unloading their yachts and executive jets in a desperate attempt to raise cash.
Should the Russian economy deteriorate to the point where economic collapse is not out of
AND
Global Economic Crisis is its least dangerous consequence.

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: 3 | Opponent: Berkeley Prep | Judge: Kevin Wiesner
(See Greenhill Round 3 Protectionism da)

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: 5 | Opponent: Westminster | Judge: Azhar Unwala
The United States Supreme Court should invalidate determinations of ineligibility made by consular officers for E-1 and E-2 visa beneficiaries without appropriate administrative review

CP results in E visa arbitration and creates legal stability --- crucial to effective two-way FDI
HAGER 91 (Timothy R., JD – University of Tulsa Law, “Recognizing the Judicial and Arbitral Rights of Aliens to Review Consular Refusals of "E" Visas”, Tulane Law Review, November, 66 Tul. L. Rev. 203, Lexis)
V. RESOLVING DISPUTES INVOLVING CONSULAR DENIALS OF E VISAS THROUGH ARBITRATION
As previously
AND
visa classification and has ample support in both the national and international community.

Tournament: Georgetown | Round: 5 | Opponent: Westminster | Judge: Azhar Unwala
Senators will attempt to attach the Keystone Pipeline to must-pass legislation --- it will be blocked in the status quo unless the plan surfaces  
Litvan 9/25/13 (Laura Litvan, reporter at Bloomberg, “Senate Democrats Who Back Keystone Rebuff Debt-Limit Linkage,” September 25, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-25/senate-democrats-who-favor-keystone-xl-rebuff-debt-limit-linkage.html)
Some Senate Democrats who back the Keystone XL Pipeline are rebuffing plans by House Republican
AND
going to start attaching stuff to it that’s a game two can play.”

Keystone destroys critical aquifers- jacks domestic agriculture
Turner 12
Ted Turner is the founder and chairman of the United Nations Foundation and the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting.  Co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which seeks to reduce the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. “Stop Keystone pipeline before it’s too late” CNN February 24, 2012 (http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/22/opinion/turner-keystone-pipeline/index.html)
The potential for pollution of vital groundwater from the Keystone XL pipeline is even more
AND
that region should understand how a sizable pipeline failure could have catastrophic consequences.

U.S. agriculture solves global instability that escalates into great power war --- independently resolves famine which results in extinction
Klare 12 (Michael T., Professor of Peace and World Security Studies – Hampshire College, “Michael T. Klare: The Hunger Wars in Our Future”, 8-8, http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/michael-t-klare-the-hunger-wars-in-our-future/, Deech)
This, however, is just the beginning of the likely consequences: if history
AND
continues to fuel the insurgency of the Maoist-inspired Naxalites of India.

Tournament: Greenhill Proper | Round: 3 | Opponent: Hooch | Judge: Morgan Titcher
Engagement’s limited now because of opposition by protectionist lobbies
Gvosdev 12 – Nikolas K. Gvosdev, Faculty of the U.S. Naval War College and Former Editor of the National Interest, “The Realist Prism: To Reset Latin America Policy, U.S. Must Think Big”, World Politics Review, 4-20, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/11867/the-realist-prism-to-reset-latin-america-policy-u-s-must-think-big)

U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere
AND
in this case Florida’s electoral votes.

Plan inflames domestic protectionism
McGinnis 00 – Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, “The World Trade Constitution”, Harvard Law Review, December, 114 Harv. L. Rev. 511, Lexis

It is true that free trade does
AND
benefit interest groups at the expense of the public. 66

Lobbies will push restrictive regulatory measures --- wrecks trade and the economy
Watson 13 – K. William Watson and Sallie James, Trade Policy Analysts at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, “Regulatory Protectionism A Hidden Threat to Free Trade”, Cato Policy Analysis, 4-9, http://heartland.org/sites/default/files/pa723.pdf

Despite the impressive success of trade
AND
interests disguised as altruistic consumer advocates.

Extinction
Kemp 10 (Geoffrey, Director of Regional Strategic Programs – Nixon Center and Former Director of the Middle East Arms Control Project – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The East Moves West: India, China, and Asia’s Growing Presence in the Middle East, p. 233-234)

The second scenario, called Mayhem and Chaos,
AND
for two-thirds of the planet’s population.

Tournament: Greenhill Proper | Round: 3 | Opponent: Hooch | Judge: Morgan Titcher
The United States federal government should
-repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard
-remove its subsidies for domestic corn ethanol producers.
-ban ethanol imports from Brazil
-back Brazil’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
-close Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
-Reduce its nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 total weapons
-Put in place a comprehensive international nuclear-control regime
-Launch a vigorous diplomatic effort to convince the world of the logic of zero

including brazil in the security council solves relations
Sanchez 11 - W. Alejandro Sánchez is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus and a research fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs where he focuses on international security and geopolitical issues, (“An Easy Way to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations Brazil is a front-runner for a seat in a restructured UN Security Council.”, July 28, 2011, An Easy Way to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations Brazil is a front-runner for a seat in a restructured UN Security Council.)
During his attendance at a recent African Union summit, former Brazilian president Lula da Silva critiqued the structure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC): “it isn’t possible that Latin America, with its 400 million inhabitants, does not have permanent representation. Five countries decide what to do and how to do it, regardless of the rest of the humans living on this planet.” Such statements are nothing new. The UNSC’s structure has come under heavy criticism in recent years, with repeated calls for its expansion. Countries like India, South Africa, and Brazil have become the usual suspects as possible new permanent members. And the Portuguese-speaking giant has emerged as the de facto representative for Latin America and the Caribbean to the UNSC. If the United States backs Brazil’s bid, it will gain considerable political capital in Latin America. Brazil’s UN Qualifications Brazil has been a rising star in Latin America and the world for several decades and boasts a number of successes that supports its quest for becoming a permanent representative to the UNSC. For starters the country has a history of involvement in UN missions: one of the first Brazilian UN deployments occurred in 1956 when Brasilia, under President Juscelino Kubitschek, sent peacekeepers to the Sinai. Brazilians have also served in the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador and the UN Mission in Angola. More recently, Brasilia took a leadership role in the UN Stabilization Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH) to aid the transitional government that took control of Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ouster. Brazil has provided the military commanders for MINUSTAH along with a significant number of troops. In addition, Brasilia has also provided personnel for the UN peace mission efforts in East Timor, which separated from Indonesia in 2002. Leading up to East Timor’s independence, Brazilian diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello served as the special representative of the UN secretary general and as UN transitional administrator (a sort of de facto governor) from December 1999 to May 2002. De Mello spent most of his career working for the UN instead of the Brazilian diplomatic corps and he was even thought to have been a likely candidate for the position of UN secretary general, which would have been a great honor for him and his country. He was tragically killed in the Canal Hotel bombing in Iraq on August 2003 while working as the secretary general’s special representative to Iraq. In addition, Brazil already appears to be a de facto semi-permanent member of the UNSC, without the crucial veto power, due to the number of times it has held a temporary seat. Brasilia had a seat in 1946-1947, 1951-1953, 1954-1956, 1963-1965, and 1967-1968. Because the country had a military government from 1964 to 1985, it would not return to the UNSC until 1988-1989. Since returning to democratic rule, Brazil has had a seat almost non-stop: in 1993-1995; 1998-2000; 2004-2006; and currently in 2010 until the end of 2011. Furthermore, in another diplomatic victory, former minister José Graziano da Silvahas has been elected to be the next director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Besides its role in the UN, Brazil today has strong relations with different countries and regions of the world. For example, under former president Lula da Silva, Brazil became a major supporter for the creation of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations – Union de Naciones Suramericanas), a South American political bloc that has all 12 states as its members. Regarding non-hemispheric inter-state relations, Brazil, along with Russia, China and India form the BRIC countries, regarded as rising, non-Western economic and political powerhouses. In addition, with India and South Africa, Brazil has formed a loose alliance known as IBSA; which aims to promote political and economical integration between its members. In September 2010 the three states carried out military maritime exercises in South Africa. Furthermore, Brazil has historical ties with the Sub-Saharan Africa as well as fellow Portuguese-speaking countries. The African countries that Brazil has approached include Nigeria, Angola, and Mozambique though the agreements reached between them appear to be mostly focused around commerce and/or tourism. Only with South Africa has there been a special, more multi-dimensional relationship. Likewise, Brazil has taken steps to promote the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe established in 1996. Of primary importance to Brazil may be the fact that the CPLP countries, including East Timor now as an independent state, have supported Brazil’s candidacy for a UNSC permanent seat. Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota has said that CPLP countries support each other in all their claims in international institutions like the United Nations, adding that “the idea is that we mutually support our bids. When a country from our family is a candidate for a position in an international organ, it will have our support.” Finally, Brazil has a booming economy, with offshore oil fields recently discovered that will make the country’s maritime industry grow even more. This may actually turn out to be the decade of Brazil, as it will also host two major sporting events: the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Drawbacks and Criticisms Nevertheless, Brazil’s has drawn criticism for some of its foreign and domestic initiatives. Brazil has had a controversial role in MINUSTAH as the UN mission has been regarded as a type of colonial government by the UN in the wake of the ouster of former president Aristide. MINUSTAH troops have been accused of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings during operations in areas like Cite Soleil while battling criminal gangs and rebels. Although Brazilian peacekeepers have not been singled out for responsibility for the violence, the country provides up to 1,300 troops to the mission, more than any other country, and a Brazilian commander has continuously led the effort. Ironically, during the 2005 riots in Cite Soleil and Bel Air, the Brazilians faced complaints that “they don’t seem like they want to get too involved.” In addition, Brazil’s domestic security policies have come under criticism for police crackdowns on gangs that operate in shantytowns in an effort to rid Brazil’s major cities of crime in time for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Local residents also fear that when the Rio Olympics are over, “the state will take less interest in the favelas, allowing the drug trafficking gangs to re-establish control.” Furthermore, groups like Amnesty International have expressed concern “as Rio de Janeiro carries forth large scale ‘urbanization’ plans in preparation for the sporting events.” These organizations argue that Olympic projects “ranging from the Trans Carioca to the Trans Olimpica and parking, have been blamed for the planned as well as already executed forced removal of partial or entire communities.” Finally, as strong as the Brazilian economy is today, the country’s overvalued currency will eventually lead to some kind of correction. According to Bloomberg, the valuation of the real “is prompting analysts to predict the currency will tumble 10 percent by 2013, which would make it the worst performer in the world.” How the Rest of America Feels In recent years, besides Brazil, countries like Mexico and Venezuela have increased their regional influence. It is debatable, however, if either of them are possible candidates to be permanent representatives to the UNSC. Regarding Mexico, the country has strong influences in Central America, and it has an expanding economy. It also has a growing role in organizations like APEC (Asia Pacific Economic cooperation) and is host to a relatively unknown but important organization: OPANAL (Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America). However, one of the concerns is that Mexico is regarded as too politically close to the United States due to close economic and security ties through Plan Merida and NAFTA. Hence Mexico would have difficulty being independent of Washington’s influence. On the other hand, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has made it a foreign policy priority to distance his country from Washington, a 180 degree turn from Venezuela before Chavez, when the South American state was a reliable U.S. ally. Chavez certainly has some international support, but he has also been a divisive figure. It’s not likely that Chavez could win sufficient international support for Venezuela’s bid for a seat. In general, most Latin American states have expressed their support for Brazil’s UN bid. In May 2011, President Chavez met with Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rouseff, and expressed his support for his Portuguese neighbor’s UNSC quest. Other countries like Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile have also voiced their support. “So far Brazil’s claim has gone largely uncontested, except for minor murmurings of dissent,” according to the UPI. A May/June 2011 article in Foreign Affairs adds that “many Latin American officials quietly reveal that they are not eager to see Brazil replace the United States as the hemisphere’s hegemon. As one diplomat recently put it, ‘The new imperialists have arrived, and they speak Portuguese.’” It would seem that Latin American support for Brazil to the UNSC is not simply due to good relations between regional governments and Brasilia but also due to the lack of any other regional candidate to counterbalance Brasilia’s ambition. Regarding Washington, President Barack Obama has not carried out a concrete policy toward Latin America. He has occasionally travelled to the region, and he visited Brazil this past March. But his priorities are someplace else (i.e. the American economy and U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya). During his recent trip to Brazil, he recognized “Brazil’s extraordinary rise” and he “expressed appreciation for Brazil’s aspiration,” to have a permanent seat at the UNSC, nevertheless he stopped short of openly supporting Brasilia’s bid. Improving Washington’s Relations with Latin America The United Nations Security Council is long overdue for a general restructuring, and controversial decisions like the authorization to begin a military operation in Libya (officially to protect civilians but it’s widely understood that the coalition of warships in the Mediterranean is indirectly aiding the rebels against Muammar Gaddafi) have brought about accusations that the Libya mission is just another example of how UNSC permanent members use the UN to project and protect their national interests. An expansion of the UNSC is an obvious recommendation and several of the permanent UN members have expressed support for powerhouses that aspire for a seat: Britain, for instance, supports Brazil while China and Russia support India. Nevertheless, according to several specialists, the major issue with UNSC reform is not a lack of potential models, but a lack of political will. None of the permanent members has prioritized a change the UNSC structure in the immediate future. Regarding Brazil, the country does have most of the basic requirements, including backing by several states, to be a UNSC permanent member, making it the self-evident representative of Latin America and Caribbean. This doesn’t mean that Brazil is the perfect candidate to represent the region, but so far it is the only real option. The country should continue its version of good neighbor diplomacy and for that it might want to respect decisions by international bodies even if its government does not agree with them. One perfect example of this is Brasilia’s challenge and rejection of a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, which had asked Brazil to stop the construction of the Belo Monte dam, as it hadn’t taken into the account the opinions and needs of local indigenous groups. The world already has too many powerhouses doing what they want, irrespective of the wishes by weaker states or international bodies. If Brazil really wants to be a representative powerhouse with a seat at the UNSC, it would help if it became the exception to the rule and actually respected decisions by the international organizations that it belongs to, instead of making claims that the OAS suggestions were “precipitated and unjustifiable.” Finally, more open Washington support for Brazil’s UN aspirations would certainly help improve relations between the United States and Latin America. The election of Barack Obama was very well received by the Global South in general but, at least regarding the Western Hemisphere, not much has happened during his tenure. A stronger endorsement by the White House stating that Latin America does deserve a permanent member at the UNSC table would be a very important positive step in making the Washington-Latin American relationship a partnership of equals.

Closing GITMO solves relations and multilateralism
Rueckert 13 (Phineas Rueckert, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. 6/4/13. "GUANTÁNAMO BAY: CLOSING THE GTMO DETENTION CENTER IS A WILTING OLIVE BRANCH TO CUBA AND THE REST OF LATIN AMERICA". Council on Hemispheric Affairs. www.coha.org/guantanamo-bay-closing-the-gtmo-detention-center-is-a-wilting-olive-branch-to-cuba-and-the-rest-of-latin-america/)
The continued operation of the GTMO detention center is a shameful indictment of a backward and often hypocritical foreign policy, in which the United States legitimizes leaving Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List and simultaneously operates a morally objectionable detention center with a long history of human rights violations. While closing down the detention center and transferring detainees would be a step in the right direction for the Obama administration in terms of improving its poor human rights record, there is a larger issue at hand that has been ignored by both the administration and mainstream media outlets. In addition to being a detention center, Guantánamo Bay houses a naval base that represents the imperialist past of the United States in Cuba and the rest of Latin America; this base will remain operational even if Obama succeeds at closing the detention center. Ultimately, if Obama truly wanted to improve relations with Latin America, through a change of policy on Guantánamo, he would not only close the GTMO detention center, but also return the entire naval base to Cuba.¶ The “Legal Black Hole”¶ While the GTMO detention center opened in 2002 as a response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the Guantánamo Bay naval base has been under U.S. control since the signing of the Platt Amendment in 1901. The amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs for the “preservation of Cuban independence” and legitimized the use of the Guantánamo Bay naval base by permitting the United States to buy or lease the land from Cuba.2 By taking advantage of a weak and powerless Cuban state just emerging from a difficult war and beguiling Cuba into complying with the treaties through an offer of trade subsidies, the Platt Amendment and the Cuban-American Treaty (1903) that followed were one-sided “agreements” that failed to take into account the needs of the Cuban population. The United States imposed the Platt Amendment on Cuba during the height of its imperialist strategy in order to “protect American commercial interests—especially investments in sugar—against Cuban labor radicalism.”3 Rather than preserving Cuban independence, the Platt Amendment and the open-ended lease of Guantánamo Bay to the United States served to fortify a U.S. military presence on the island, despite the protestations of an unwilling host.¶ Source: www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu¶ Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the Cuban government has repeatedly questioned the legality of the United States holding of Guantánamo Bay and unsuccessfully demanded that the base be closed and reverted to Cuba. The Guantánamo Public Memory Project calls the Guantánamo Bay naval base “a legal black hole” because of the controversial wording of the Platt Amendment. While the amendment granted Cuba “ultimate sovereignty” over Guantánamo, it simultaneously gave the United States “complete jurisdiction and control over the territory.”4 This wording resulted in a situation in which the United States fully dictated which laws applied to Guantánamo, and therefore, until the landmark ruling of Boumediene v. Bush in 2008, was able to legitimize its denial of constitutional rights to detainees. It also meant that the United States could decide when, if ever, it wants to return the base to Cuba—undercutting Cuba’s ability to exercise its ultimate sovereignty over the land.¶ Obama’s Failed Attempts to Close the GTMO Detention Center¶ Since his 2007 presidential campaign, President Obama has maintained that he intends to close the GTMO detention center, but was only able to make small steps toward that goal during his first presidential term. When, in 2009, Obama signed executive orders to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center within a year, as well as to establish an interagency task force to review his administration’s detention policies and individual cases of Guantánamo detainees, it appeared that he might put the issue behind him. However, he quickly ran into trouble regarding how to try prisoners convicted for their participation in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks without inflaming U.S. public opinion. Furthermore, his initiative to transfer detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois backfired in May 2010, when the House Armed Services Committee unanimously passed a defense measure that prohibited the creation of detention centers in the United States.¶ Source: www.commondreams.org¶ Since his reelection in November 2012, Obama has re-engaged with the possibility of closing the Guantánamo Bay detention center—in part due to political pressure from liberals and human rights activists. A hunger strike by Guantánamo Bay detainees who have been held indefinitely at the detention center (despite many being cleared for release) came to a head in April this year, and is probably what prompted Obama to more forcefully address the issue in his counterterrorism speech.¶ According to Michael Crowley’s article, “Can Obama End the War on Terror?,” published last month in TIME Magazine, “Obama has an obviously sincere desire to bring the war against Al-Qaeda to a close and close the books on Guantánamo, however, he also lacks the power to make these things happen on his own.”5 He will need congress to overturn the law preventing the transfer of nearly 50 detainees who have been held indefinitely at Guantánamo to prisons in the United States. COHA Research Fellow Keith Bolender, who has written extensively on Cuba, believes, “Obama does want to shut down the center, but will continue to find it difficult to come to a compromise with the Republicans.”¶ If Obama Closes the GTMO Detention Center, So What?¶ For many people in the United States, including President Obama, closing Guantánamo Bay means shutting down the detention center but leaving the naval base open. However, closing only the detention center would do little to improve the relationship between Cuba and the United States. Timothy Ashby, a Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs and a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Commerce has observed:¶ I do not think closure of the GTMO center would have any impact on bilateral relations with Cuba. If the entire base were shut down and handed back to Cuba, I think the Cuban government would react favorably and see it as a goodwill gesture. But that will not happen even though the actual base is an unnecessary expense and serves no more of a strategic purpose than the detention center.¶ For Obama, closing the Guantánamo Bay detention center has more to do with improving the image of the United States in the world than it does with improving U.S. relations with Cuba or other Latin American countries and the Caribbean. As Obama decried in his May 23 speech, the Guantánamo Bay detention center is an unnecessary moral and financial burden on the United States. But the naval base itself, which Obama has never suggested closing, still serves a strategic purpose of projecting U.S. military power in the Western Hemisphere. Washington’s cursory discourse concerning Guantánamo Bay—which neglects to consider reverting the naval base to Cuba as an option—suggests that its imperialist inclinations have not fully abated.¶ Broadly speaking, the continued presence of U.S. troops at Guantánamo—regardless of whether or not those troops are there to detain terrorists—shows that Washington is not ready to step down from its traditional strategic/militaristic position in Latin America or improve relations with Cuba. Bolender argued that:¶ Guantánamo is a symbol of the imperialistic past of the United States towards Latin America, and in particular Cuba. The detention center should be shut down, those not charged freed immediately, and the rest, if any are truly guilty, sent to the United States. The bigger situation is that the base itself, forced upon Cuba more than 100 years ago, should be returned to Cuba. U.S. citizens have no right to be there, except under a one-sided treaty that the Cuban government has long condemned. That would certainly improve relations between the two countries, but the Americans have made it clear they have no intention of returning what rightfully belongs to Cuba.¶ Obama’s failure to address the imperial history of the Guantánamo Bay naval base or respond to (let alone acknowledge) the Cuban government’s pleas for the naval base to be returned to Cuba are symbolic of Washington’s unflinching Latin America policy. Even as it shows faint signs of winding down its global war on terror—as evidenced in Obama’s speech—Washington’s maintenance of the naval base in Guantánamo remains an obstacle to developing a policy of mutual respect in U.S.-Latin American relations.

counterplan solves nuclear proliferation and terrorism
Daalder and Lodal, 08 November/December, Ivo Daalder is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jan Lodal is President of the Atlantic Council of the United States and a former senior Defense Department and White House official in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton, “ The logic of zero, towards a world without nuclear weapons”, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/articles/2008/11_nuclear_weapons_daalder/11_nuclear_weapons_daalder.pdf
That reality has yet to sink in. U.S. nuclear policies remain stuck in the Cold War, even as the threats the United States faces have changed dramatically. Today, the gravest threat comes from the possibility of terrorists bent on delivering a devastating blow against the United States acquiring the capacity to do so with nuclear weapons. This threat is compounded by the dangers of nuclear proliferation, as more and more countries hedge against potentially negative developments in their regions by acquiring the wherewithal to build the bomb. Then there is the increasing global demand for nuclear energy, which will spread the infrastructure necessary to produce fissile nuclear materials still wider. The world, in short, is on the verge of entering an age of more nuclear weapons states, more nuclear materials, and more nuclear facilities that are poorly secured–making the job of the terrorists seeking the bomb easier and the odds that a nuclear weapon will be used greater. The grave nature of these growing threats has motivated a widespread rethinking of the U.S. approach to nuclear weapons. The most dramatic example is the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons articulated by former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn in a January 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed. Their vision has since been endorsed by no less than two-thirds of all living former secretaries of state, former secretaries of defense, and former national security advisers. Both Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have expressed support for it as well. Given this remarkable bipartisan consensus, the next president will have an opportunity to make the elimination of all nuclear weapons the organizing principle of U.S. nuclear policy. Setting a vision of this kind is vitally important, but it is not enough. What is also needed is a strategic logic that explains how the world can get there from here. It involves four major steps, each difficult but feasible. First, Washington must establish as official policy the limited purpose of U.S. nuclear forces: to prevent the use of nuclear weapons by others. Other purposes are no longer realistic or necessary for the United States. Second, given this limited purpose of its nuclear weapons, the United States should reduce its nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 total weapons. This would be more than enough to convince anyone that the United States possesses the capacity to respond to any use of nuclear weapons with devastating effect. Third, the United States must work to put in place a comprehensive international nuclear-control regime that goes well beyond the present nonproliferation regime’s accounting and monitoring of nuclear materials. It must include all fissile materials and provide an airtight verification system to enable the world to move from thousands of nuclear weapons to hundreds, to tens, and ultimately to zero. Finally, Washington must launch a vigorous diplomatic effort to convince the world of the logic of zero–and of the benefits of taking the difficult steps necessary to get there. This effort should start with its closest and most important allies, then include other nonnuclear states who have long called for such an initiative, and ultimately encompass all nuclear states. U.S. leadership of this international effort will be crucial. And a willingness to act boldly to reduce its own reliance on nuclear weapons and drastically cut its own arsenal can give Washington the credibility necessary to succeed.

Repealing the renewable fuel standard solves demand for corn ethanol
Mead 13 (Walter Mead, Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, co-founder of the New American Foundation, Editor-at-Large of The American Interest magazine, former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, “Ethanol Still a Boondoggle,” July 17, 2013, http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/07/17/ethanol-still-a-boondoggle/)
The US has a law on the books, the Renewable Fuel Standard, that mandates an ever-increasing amount of ethanol to be blended into gasoline. Under the 2007 law, oil companies must blend the required amount of ethanol or, in lieu of that, buy credits, known as renewable identification numbers (RINs). The price of those credits has skyrocketed this year more than 2,300 percent, hitting an all-time high yesterday. The ethanol targets set by the Renewable Fuel Standard are out of sync with both the demand for ethanol and its potential supply. Gasoline consumption is projected to be relatively flat this year, a change that the Renewable Fuel Standard lacks a mechanism to account for. This shortfall in demand could potentially be fixed if producers up the percentage of ethanol they mix in with their gasoline past the current industry standard of 10 percent, but few oil companies are willing to move past this so-called “blend wall,” citing studies that link higher ethanol content with engine damage. All of this explains why oil companies are snatching up increasingly Even if refiners started blending in more ethanol, the supply problem remains: this year’s supply is projected to be less than the mandate. -rare RINs at ever-higher prices. Oh, the RIN-sanity! This is a mess even before you consider the foibles of the source of the lion’s share of this ethanol: corn. Before the Renewable Fuel Standard set these arbitrarily high targets, the US used just 23 percent of its corn to produce ethanol. Last year 43 percent of our corn crops went towards producing the biofuel. That shift has driven up global prices for corn, starving the world’s poor and potentially fueling food riots. And to what end? Corn ethanol is categorized as a biofuel, but it doesn’t reduce emissions. Advanced biofuels produced from such sources as sugarcane and algae pass the green test, but they haven’t yet proven their commercial viability.

Switch from ethanol fuel mandate and subsidization increases food capacity – solves food prices and the impact
Kadlec 11 (Charles Kadlec, contributor, Forbes, Founder of the Community of Liberty, author, “Restoring America’s Economic Future,” Forbes, February 1, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2011/02/01/restoring-americas-economic-future/)
An obvious place to start would be the repeal of all mandates and subsidies for the use of ethanol. There is now ample evidence that the use of ethanol as a fuel actually harms the environment. Therefore, it makes no sense to mandate the use of corn to feed America’s automobiles instead of providing nourishment to human beings, especially at a time when rising food prices are creating political and social unrest throughout the developing world and among the poor everywhere.

Tournament: Greenhill Proper | Round: 6 | Opponent: New Trier | Judge: Andres Gannon
Text – United States federal government should
-lift the moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf’s Alaska region and offer to jointly drill in the Alaska region with Petróleos Mexicanos.
-substantially increase its investment and development of biomanufacturing capability to detect and neutralize terrorist attacks using biological and chemical agents. 

Solves energy independence and the US economy – Arctic has enough energy resources
Cunningham, Policy Analyst for Energy and Climate at the American Security Project, 2012 (Nicholas, August, “Offshore Oil Drilling in the Arctic” http://americansecurityproject.org/ASP20Reports/Ref20007620-20Offshore20Oil20Drilling20in20the20Arctic.pdf)
The Arctic region represents the next frontier
AND
reserves on the U.S. outer continental shelf.

The CP solves – bolsters detection and neutralization capability
Morgan et al. 03 (Sarah Morgan East Texas Baptist University, Silverio Colon, Arizona State University Department of Bioengineering College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Judith A. Ruffner and John A. Emerson, Organic Materials Department, “Biomanufacturing: A State of the Technology Review” September 2003, http://www.che.ncsu.edu/academics/concentrations/documents/Biomanufacturing-AStateofTechRev.pdf)
Perhaps the most unique and advantageous
AND
to contribute to any one of these fields. 

Gulf drilling undermines naval readiness – prevents effective training
Weiss, Senior Fellow Center for American Progress, 2012 (Daniel, September 13, “The American Energy Initiatives” Congressional Documents and Publications, lexis)
There have been recent proposals to open
AND
to recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. 

Collapse of naval readiness ensures Chinese aggression and triggers wars in every major hotspot
Eaglen, Research Fellow National Security at Heritage, 2011 (Mackenzie, May 16, “Thinking About a Day Without Sea Power: Implications for U.S. Defense Policy” http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/05/thinking-about-a-day-without-sea-power-implications-for-us-defense-policy)
Global Implications. Under a scenario of dramatically
AND
these benefits far outweigh the costs of maintaining it.

Tournament: Greenhill Proper | Round: 1 | Opponent: Loyola | Judge: Martin Osborn
The United States federal government should provide Brazil with renewable energy assistance.

Brazil solves
EERE 13 (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, part of the DOE. "Drazil and the United States Advance Their Strategic Dialogue". EERE News. apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=19108)
Representatives of the United States and Brazil met
AND
the joint statementPDF on the Strategic Energy Dialogue.

Tournament: Pace RR | Round: 7 | Opponent: Pine Crest | Judge: Malsin, Brown
The aff has the right idea but provides the wrong solution --- the 1AC’s assumption that the starting point of legal ruling  combats state violence rearranges the legal card deck by reaffirming the sovereignty of the law and the state --- this sanitizes violence, and turns the case
Krasmann 12 (Susanne Krasmann, Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Criminological Research, University of Hamburg, “Law's knowledge: On the susceptibility and resistance of legal practices to security matters,” Theoretical Criminology 2012 16: 379 originally published online 4 June 2012, pg. 380)
In the face of these developments, a new debate on how to contain governmental
AND
can be regarded as a touchstone of law’s resistance to its own abrogation.

Their affimitive’s method of legal chances pre-supposed the legitimacy of the law- this represses de facto progress
Gordon 87 (Robert W., Professor of Law at Stanford University, “Unfreezing Legal Reality: Critical Approaches To Law,” Florida State University Law Review (15 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. 195), Summer, Available Online to Subscribing Institutions via Lexis-Nexis)
Now a central tenet of CLS work has been that the ordinary discourses of law
AND
and empirical statements of our ordinary discourses in any case so often misdescribe social
experience as not to present any defensible pictures of the practices that they attempt to
AND
course, and, in honor of the occasion, a Florida case.

Their method for change in mired in bureaucratic vernacular which displaces more effective solutions and cedes agency over violence which guarantees failure
Contreras 08 (Francisco J. CONTRERAS Prf. Philosophy of Law @ Seville AND Ignacio de la RASILLA Ph.D. candidate in international law, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva ‘8 “On War as Law and Law as War” Leiden Journal of International Law Vol. 21 Issue 3 p. 770-773)
War’s ubiquity, its discontinuity, and the blurring of its outline are not without
AND
– of discretion to kill and let live. (p. 170).

Vote negative to embrace their ethic of unconditional hospitality but reject their method of legal changes to shake the rug out from under the legal system by engaging in active criticism.  
Singer 84 (Joseph William, Associate Professor of Law at Boston University, “The Player and the Cards: Nihilism and Legal Theory,” Yale Law Journal (94 Yale L.J. 1), November, Available Online to Subscribing Institutions via Lexis-Nexis)
What shall we do then about legal theory? I think we should abandon the
AND
live together. We are going to have to answer that question ourselves.

Tournament: MBA | Round: 2 | Opponent: Barstow | Judge: Travis Henderson
Energy reformed passed Mexican Congress, but the battle is far from over --- Nieto has leverage to win on upcoming implementing laws, but PC is key
Garza 12-19 (Antonio Garza, writer for The Moniter. "COMMENTARY: Mexico's oil reforms -- a long road ahead". www.themonitor.com/opinion/columnists/article_ed02861a-6836-11e3-acf7-0019bb30f31a.html)

Mexico took a giant leap toward a new economic future last week with congressional passage
AND
continued political opposition from the left can’t be dismissed as a potential complication.

Cooperation with the US is unpopular --- particularly with the PRI
Long 13 (Tom Long 4-16-2013 Doctoral research fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University, "Will tensions over security spoil the Obama-Peña Nieto Summit?” American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, aulablog.net/2013/04/16/will-tensions-over-security-spoil-the-obama-pena-nieto-summit/)

Peña Nieto’s political incentives do not point to the same, high-profile cooperation
AND
violations and the slow pace of judicial reform could also grow more serious.

Nieto’s political capital is key to sustain a North American energy revolution
Snow 13 (Nick 9-9, Oil and Gas Journal “Mexico reforms seen as key to N. American energy alliance”, Washington Editor)

Efforts to reform Mexico's oil and gas regime appear likely and could provide the necessary
AND
. "Mexico may hold the key to meeting North America's energy challenges."
That solves US oil dependence
Hakim 11-26 (Peter 2012, president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, Foreign Policy, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/won_t_you_be_my_neighbor?page=0,0)

Beyond immigration, Peña Nieto and his advisors consider energy policy one of their highest
AND
Middle East and other distant and/or troubled parts of the world.
Oil dependence causes extinction
Lendman 7 (Stephen, renowned author and research associate at the Center for Research on Globalization, “Resource Wars - Can We Survive Them?”, July 2007, http://www.rense.com/general76/-resrouce.htm)
*This card edited to remove holocaust rhetoric which we do not endorse

With the world's energy supplies finite, the US heavily dependent on imports, and
AND
, or at least a big part of it, would have survived.

Tournament: MBA | Round: Octas | Opponent: Iowa City West | Judge: Tang, Dinser, Schirmer
1nc turn

1. Plan causes reshoring
   Christopher Leone, Cronkite News, 6/1/12, "Panel says U.S.-Mexico border issues hinder huge economic opportunities" http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2012/06/panel-says-u-s-mexico-border-issues-hinder-huge-economic-opportunities/)
   On top of stepped-up security efforts, Wilson said, deteriorating roads, bridges and ports of entry have added hours to the time it takes businesses and tourists to cross. Those delays have caused some business to move operations to Asia, according to their report.¶ “We are way behind in constructing infrastructure to facilitate trade along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Lee, adding that there is as much as $6 billion in backlogged maintenance to that infrastructure.

Outsourcing is key to Chinese economic rise
Dyer 8 Martin is a Corporate Accountant at Big Red, Inc. He holds a BA in Finance from LSU. “The Effects of U.S. Outsourcing to China,” http://www.lsu.edu/faculty/jwither/Essays/Immigration_Trade/Dyer_Essay.html
“Made in America” is quickly becoming a lost phrase. Outsourcing is a
AND
force tends to be more skilled, higher educated, and better disciplined.”
China’s economic rise is good --- they’re on the brink of collapse --- causes CCP instability and lashout --- also tubes the global economy, US primacy, and Sino relations
Mead 9 Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, “Only Makes You Stronger,” The New Republic, 2/4/9, http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=571cbbb9-2887-4d81-8542-92e83915f5f8
The greatest danger both to U.S.-China relations and to American power
AND
modernization and change; nobody knows what will happen if the growth stops.
Chinese lashout goes nuclear
The Epoch Times, Renxing San, 8/4/2004, 8/4, http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-8-4/30931.html
Since the Party’s life is “above all else,” it would not be surprising
AND
now plans to hold one billion people hostage and gamble with their lives.  

2. Offshoring key to trade- doesn’t collapse the economy or competitivenes
Chapman 12 (Steve Chapman, columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune. 7/19/12. "What Politicians Don't Know About Outsourcing". reason.com/archives/2012/07/19/what-politicians-dont-know-about-outsour
That's one problem with the war of allegations. The other is that they reflect
AND
have no clue how trade acts to continually raise our standard of living.

Extinction
Pazner, 8 (Michael J., Faculty – New York Institute of Finance, Financial Armageddon: Protect Your Future from Economic Collapse, p. 137-138)
The rise in isolationism and protectionism will bring about ever more heated arguments and dangerous
AND
between Muslims and Western societies as the beginnings of a new world war.
2NC---Turns Competitiveness

Chinese growth turns the case --- strong Chinese technological power forms linkages with US companies --- drives growth of US companies
NRC 10 National Research Council “The Dragon and the Elephant: Understanding the Development of Innovation Capacity in China and India: Summary of a Conference” http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12873andpage=13
Wadhwa found in his surveys that companies go offshore for reasons of “cost and
AND
the needs of a service economy comprise an issue looming for world leaders.

And, no risk the aff turns or outweighs the DA --- China rise doesn’t undercut US economic power and US growth is inevitable --- alt causes like regulatory failure doom the aff anyways --- Chinese economic integration is more important for global stability
Edward S. Steinfeld 2010 is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology PLAYING OUR GAME Why China’s Economic Rise Doesn’t Threaten the West p 229
At least eight successive U.S. presidential administrations, from Nixon to Obama
AND
It is in China’s interest. And it is in the world’s interest.

The DA solves US competitiveness better --- there’s more economic potential in China --- that’s key to sustaining a US and global recovery
USA Today 10 U.S. companies turn to China, other Asian nations, for growth, 7/15 http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2010-07-15-asiaexpansion15_ST_N.htm
The recent global recession has whet U.S. companies' appetite for growth in
AND
other parts of Asia as the "hot spot of global growth opportunities."

2NC---Turns Heg

Chinese growth is key to US hegemony
Yiwei 7 Wang Yiwei, Center for American Studies @ Fudan University, “China's Rise: An Unlikely Pillar of US Hegemony,” The Harvard International Review, Volume 29, Issue 1 Spring 2007, pp. 60-63.
Historically, the United States has provided the dominant development paradigm for the world.
AND
less name-recognition there than a first-round American Idol cut. 

2NC---AT: Manu Bad/Diversification

Even if diversification away from manufacturing is good in the long-term, in the short term the aff collapses the economy
Tung 10/10 Ariel is a writer for China Daily. “Analysts expect stronger Chinese economy,” 2012, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-10/10/content_15805360.htm
Yukon Huang, a senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International
AND
-oriented economy from its current export-dependent model, Lee stressed.

Tournament: Greenhill RR | Round: 7 | Opponent: Wayzata | Judge: Eric Oddo  Toby Whisenhunt
(Same as Mexican Politics DA from round 6)

Tournament: St Marks | Round: 2 | Opponent: Wichita East | Judge: Carswell
PEMEX scenario (See Greenhill RR round 5)

Tournament: Blake | Round: 4 | Opponent: Glenbrook South | Judge: Ross Garrett
The DOE is not approving LNG exports now because domestic supply concerns
Reed 12/5/13 (Heff Reid, writer for Oil Pro. ""We've Waited Long Enough": Pressure Intensifies to Accelerate DOE's Approval of LNG Exports". oilpro.com/post/1770/we-ve-waited-long-enough-pressure-intensifies-to-accelerate-doe-s-approval-of-lng-exports)
NAM and the energy ministry have been urging the acceleration of export approvals, while
AND
that have aided in giving a boost to U.S. manufacturing.

Normalizing relations causes natural gas drilling- Cuba has tons of it
Lee 08 (Rens Lee President of Global Advisory Service, Stanford PhD, Foreign affairs, Rethinking the Embargo, November, December 2008 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64618/rens-lee/rethinking-the-embargo)
Another good reason to reevaluate U.S. Cuba policy relates to Cuba's huge
AND
country, U.S. companies are forced to stand idly by.

U.S. LNG exports send a signal of energy competition with Russia---destroys energy coop key to broader relations
Richard Weitz 13, senior fellow and director of the Center for Political-Military Affairs at Hudson Institute, 1/29/13, “Global Insights: Oil Sector a Challenge for Russia, Opportunity for U.S.,” http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/12672/global-insights-oil-sector-a-challenge-for-russia-opportunity-for-u-s
In the view of Russians interviewed by the authors, this paucity of cooperation results
AND
and Moscow, will contribute to the health of bilateral ties moving forward.  

Extinction
Graham Allison 11, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, 10/30/11, “10 reasons why Russia still matters,” http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=161EF282-72F9-4D48-8B9C-C5B3396CA0E6
That central point is that Russia matters a great deal to a U.S
AND
Tehran to joining China in preventing U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Tournament: St Marks | Round: 5 | Opponent: Berkeley Prep | Judge: David Heidt
The United States Supreme Court should overturn Zemel v Rusk and Regan v Wald to ease restrictions on general licenses for non-tourist travel between the United States and Cuba.

Court solves
Lebovich 10 (Andrew Lebovich, writer for the Washington Note. 5/12/10. "The Supreme Court and the Travel Ban to Cuba". Washington Note. washingtonnote.com/guest_post_by_n_3/With President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court is changing)
(although this change should not significantly alter the ideological balance of the Court).
AND
of Americans is permitted the right to travel while others are denied it.

Tournament: St Marks | Round: 5 | Opponent: Berkeley Prep | Judge: David Heidt
The United States Supreme Court should overturn Zemel v Rusk and Regan v Wald to ease restrictions on general licenses for non-tourist travel between the United States and Cuba.

Court solves
Lebovich 10 (Andrew Lebovich, writer for the Washington Note. 5/12/10. "The Supreme Court and the Travel Ban to Cuba". Washington Note. washingtonnote.com/guest_post_by_n_3/With President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court is changing)
(although this change should not significantly alter the ideological balance of the Court).
AND
of Americans is permitted the right to travel while others are denied it.

Tournament: St Marks | Round: 3 | Opponent: Polytechnic | Judge: Jordan Foley
Pink Tide is dying- Chavez’s death

Panizza ‘13
Dr Francisco Panizza is the Head of the Latin America International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. He is a Reader in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. “Latin America: Life after Chavez (and Lula)” – April 4th – http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ideas/2013/04/latin-america-life-after-chavez-and-lula/

The death of Chávez and the succession of Lula by Dilma Rousseff in Brazil leaves
AND
regional change than encapsulated by the narrative of the rise of the left.

Second – Softening embargo while the Castros are in charge means profits to finance “pink tide”.

Brookes ‘9
(Peter – Heritage council, Senior Fellow, Brookes is serving his third term as a congressionally appointed member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He previously served in the administration of President George W. Bush as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs. In this post, he was responsible for U.S. defense policy for 38 countries and five bilateral defense alliances in Asia, Brookes was a professional staff member with the House International Relations Committee. He also served with the CIA and the State Department at the United Nations. In the private sector, he worked in the defense and intelligence industries.¶ A decorated Navy veteran, Brookes served on active duty in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East in aviation and intelligence billets, Brookes, now a retired Navy commander, served as a reservist with the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Naval Intelligence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of the Vice President, Brookes is pursuing a doctorate at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (B.S.); the Defense Language Institute (Russian); the Naval War College; and the Johns Hopkins University (M.A.). He also has taught at the National Defense University and studied German and Polish, National Security Affairs, “Keep the Embargo, O” – April 16 – http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2009/04/keep-the-embargo-o)

Of course, the big empanada is the US economic embargo against Cuba, in
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communist regime, we should hold firm onto the leverage the embargo provides.

Castro-led pink tide causes US-Russia military confrontations.

Walser ‘8
(Ray Walser, Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America at the Heritage Foundation – Chávez, Venezuela, and Russia: A New Cuban Missile Crisis? – WebMemo #2064 -- September 15th http://www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm2064.cfm)

Like his iconic mentor, Fidel Castro, Chávez thrives on mounting tensions and confrontation
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will take as it shapes its policy toward America's neighbors in the hemisphere. 

Small US-Russia conflicts can escalate or cause nuclear miscalc.

Gottemoeller ‘8
(Rose Gottemoeller was sworn in as the United States Department of State's Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance on April 6, 2009. She was the chief negotiator of the follow on for the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty otherwise known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the Russian Federation. Since 2000, she had been with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace – “U.S.-Russia Cooperation on Iran: Aftermath of the Summer War in Georgia,” Carnegie Moscow Center, August- July 2008. PLESE NOTE – THIS CARD APPEARS IN A HOST OF CURRENT OPEN-SOURCE DEBATE DOCS AND THE URL THAT APPEARS ON THOSE CARDS MISDIRECTS TO A DIFFERENT Gottemoeller ARTICLE. The website below redirects to her October article:   http://www.scribd.com/doc/13031239/RussianAmerican-Security-Relations-After-Georgia)

No holds barred, no rules—the United States and Russia may be heading
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us, we could come close to nuclear  catastrophe before we knew it.

Tournament: TOC | Round: 7 | Opponent: University Prep | Judge:
1NC
1NC---1
Basing politics on the gratuitous violence of racism glosses over the political economy --- this legitimizes neoliberal ideology and cements class hierarchies
REED 2013 – professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in race and American politics. He has taught at Yale, Northwestern and the New School for Social Research. An expert on racial and economic inequality, he is a founding member of the Labor Party and a frequent contributor to The Nation (2/25, Adolph, Nonsite, “Django Unchained, or, The Help: How “Cultural Politics” Is Worse Than No Politics at All, and Why”, http://nonsite.org/feature/django-unchained-or-the-help-how-cultural-politics-is-worse-than-no-politics-at-all-and-why
In both films the bogus happy endings are possible only because they characterize their respective
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New Basin Canal; slave labor was too valuable for such lethal work.
The Help trivializes Jim Crow by reducing it to its most superficial features and irrational
AND
that’s the film you thought you were watching when you saw The Help.)
Django Unchained trivializes slavery by reducing it to its most barbaric and lurid excesses.
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his labor, he, the master, may accumulate wealth?’”
That absolute control permitted horrible, unthinkable brutality, to be sure, but perpetrating
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some of them up, just as does The Help regarding Jim Crow.
The Help could not imagine a more honest and complex view of segregationist Mississippi partly
AND
the costumes and props of the 1970s film genres Tarantino wants to recall.
To make sense of how Django Unchained has received so much warmer a reception among
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assumptions and unexamined first premises that provide its common sense, its lifeworld.
Objection to The Help has been largely of the shooting fish in a barrel variety: complaints about the film’s paternalistic treatment of the maids, which generally have boiled down to an objection that the master-servant relation is thematized at all, as well as the standard, predictable litany of anti-racist charges about whites speaking for blacks, the film’s inattentiveness to the fact that at that time in Mississippi black people were busily engaged in liberating themselves, etc. An illustration of this tendency that conveniently refers to several other variants of it is Akiba Solomon, “Why I’m Just Saying No to ‘The Help’ and Its Historical Whitewash” in Color Lines,August 10, 2011, available Donovan-Knez Neg
Defenses of Django Unchained pivot on claims about the social significance of the narrative of
AND
consumption of mass culture is thoroughly embedded in capitalist material and ideological imperatives.
That, incidentally, is why I prefer the usage “mass culture” to
AND
the fiction of the authentic to announce the birth of new product cycles.
The power of the hero is a cathartic trope that connects mainly with the sensibility
AND
you have a lot of white officers running those guys into cannon fodder.”
Of course, the film industry is sharply tilted toward the youth market, as
AND
interest films, which shows up in critical discussion of them as well.
All these films—The Help, Red Tails, Django Unchained, even Lincoln
AND
defined partly by thematizing that nexus of race and politics in some way.
The pretensions to social significance that fit these films into their particular market niche don’t
AND
as they propagandize its universalization across spatial, temporal, and social contexts.
Purportedly in the interest of popular education cum entertainment, Django Unchained and The Help
AND
, and the cartoon version of Jim Crow she represents, as irrational.
The deeper message of these films, insofar as they deny the integrity of the
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emerged as and has remained a discourse that substitutes etiquette for equality.10
This is the context in which we should take account of what “inspiring the
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need to fight constantly against disruptive market whims in the first place.”11
This politics seeps through in the chatter about Django Unchained in particular. Erin Aubry
AND
racial uplift for politics and underwrites a conflation of political action and therapy.
With respect to the nexus of race and inequality, this discourse supports victim-
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as “empowerment”; and individual material success as socially important role modeling.
Neoliberalism’s triumph is affirmed with unselfconscious clarity in the ostensibly leftist defenses of Django Unchained
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action, which their common reflex is to disparage as inauthentic or corrupt. 

And, race and gender pale in comparison to the effect of class on oppression --- it serves as an underlying system that sanctions racial violence --- their authors’  epistemology is rooted in neoliberal frames that prevent engagement with dominant discourses perpetuated by the political sphere
Juan, 5 (E. San Juan, former Fulbright professor of American Studies
AND
,” 11 Mich. J. Race and L. 75, lexis)
I. Challenge of the Epochal Divide
The advent of CRT marked a rediscovery of the primacy of the social relations of
AND
its legal-jurisprudential legitimization as the grounds for racist practices and institutions.
The currently fashionable intersectionality approach where race, class, and gender function as equally
AND
determinant of ideologies and practices sanctioning racial and gender oppression in capitalist society.
*79  Nonetheless, it was exhilarating to read classic texts in CRT anthologies
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have deployed simply preserve "the myths of liberal reform." He concludes:
Yet it is one thing to call for - and show the need for - the historicization of civil rights law, and quite another to write the history. The task of unmasking, of exposing presuppositions, of delegitimizing, is easier than that of offering a concrete historical account to replace what is exposed as inadequate. 12
Could it be that for all its power as a rigorous critical analytic of U.S. jurisprudence, mainstream legal theory, and practice, CRT has fatally confined itself to this reformist task? And, as a result, can CRT only renew itself internally by adopting novel anti-foundationalist methodologies operating within the dominant neo-liberal capitalist dispensation?
With its derivation from legal realism (Jerome Frank) and Critical Legal Studies (Roberto Unger), it seems that CRT's adherence to the notions of formal justice, which translates into "another style of class domination" based on the rule of law, leads CRT scholars to accept the  *80  fact of substantive inequality. 13 To eliminate the effects of systemic domination and subordination, racial justice and gender parity may not be sufficient. As Daniel Bensaid remarks:
Theories of justice and the critique of political economy are irreconcilable. Conceived as the
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mutual advantage), social relations of exploitation are irreducible to intersubjective relations. 15
The last sentence in the quote cannot be over-emphasized as the key to
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the source of both its strength and weakness in promoting radical institutional changes.

Experience based politics are mediated through structures of capitalist domination---starting with experience distorts political analysis necessary for revolutionary change
Peter Mclaren 4, Education and Urban Schooling Division prof, UCLA—and Valerie Scatamburlo-D'Annibale; University of Windsor, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2004, www.freireproject.org/articles/node2065/RCGS/class_dismissed-val-peter.10.pdf
This framework must be further distinguished from those that invoke the terms ‘classism’ and
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the primacy of the working class as the fundamental agent of change.8 

Their advocacy reflects the ideology of Occupy --- claiming “debate space” as a site for organic, horizontalist politics sells out radical change to the private sphere of individual performance
MARCUS 2012– associate book editor at Dissent Magazine (Fall, David, “The Horizontalists”, http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-horizontalists)
There is a much-recycled and certainly apocryphal tale told of an ethnographer traveling
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that, in our age of ever more stratification, we must resist.

Our alternative is boring politics --- it’s the only way to prevent criticism from being an end in itself
FRANK 2012 Thomas, brilliant badass, author of What's the Matter with Kansas? and editor of The Baffler "To the Precinct Station: How theory met practice …and drove it absolutely crazy" http://www.thebaffler.com/past/to_the_precinct_station
Occupy itself is pretty much gone. It was evicted from Zuccotti Park about two
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,” in which the experience of protesting is what protesting is all about.

1NC---2
The 1AC says:
“If society continues down the same road … society will pull the plug on the black body inside of its comma.”
This describes the social in terms of medicine.
Medical analogies undermine the Aff’s method for breaking down anti-Blackness. Biologizing a political condition authorizes expert-driven universalism that squelches situated experience and naturalizes violence.
Väyrynen 13 – Tarja Väyrynen, Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Peace Research Institute, Conflict Resolution and Human Need: Linking Theory and Practice, Ed. Avruch and Mitchell, p. 96-97

In both frameworks, the work of the third party comes close to that of
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failings or failures in basic human needs satisfaction which cause violent political behaviour.
This approach is, in my view, highly problematic. As Hanna Arendt writes in the context of the Black Power movement in the USA and the riots in the 1970s:
Nothing, in my opinion, could be theoretically more dangerous than the tradition of organic thought in political matters by which power and violence are interpreted in biological terms. . . . The organic metaphors with which our entire present discussion of these matters, especially of the riots, is permeated - the notion of a "sick society," of which riots are symptom of a disease - can only promote violence.
(Arendt 1970: 75)
According to Arendt, biological metaphors and explanations, including medical analogies, of violence
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human-being in constraining situations (Arendt 1970: 59-87).
Seeing society in organic and biological terms and using medical metaphors in conflict resolution increases
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naturalizes violent political events by turning them into something intrinsic to human society.
Medicalization enables biological categorization that systematically devalues and excludes huge portions of the population---culminates in racism, social death, and genocide
Hughes, 2 – Professor of Social Policy at University of Glasgow, (Bill, Disability Studies Today, ed: Barnes, p. 60-2) 

The dominant framework for understanding disability in the modern period has been the medical model
AND
disabled people’s needs and, in many cases, act in locl parentis.
However, the transformation of impairment into a social problem is not simply a story
AND
O'Neil 1986) was  on hand to save them from destitution and starvation.
The medical model of disability is, and has been, strongly associated with the
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, biological reductionism may at its worst translate into a politics of genocide.
If they that say we can’t tell them what strategy is best “for them”---this shuts down political engagement and spirals into irresolvable solipsism---it’s better to encourage dialogue and disagreement, but to have the corrective of exposing ideas to contestation, as in debate
Bridges 1 – David Bridges, Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia, 2001, The Ethics of Outsider Research, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 35, No. 3

First, it is argued that only those who have shared in, and have
AND
to understand the disability experience' (Charlton, 1998, p. 128).
Charlton's choice of language here is indicative of the rhetorical character which these arguments tend
AND
experience of disability, whatever solidarity disabled people might feel for each other?
The understanding that any of us have of our own conditions or experience is unique
AND
there may indeed be greater barriers to mutual understanding than there are gateways.
These arguments, however, all risk a descent into solipsism: if our individual
AND
and this is a construction which involves understanding differences as well as similarities.
Besides, we have good reason to treat with some scepticism accounts provided by individuals
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bear, for example, on an insider researcher in her own community:
As an insider, the lesbian has an important sensitivity to offer, yet she
AND
self-protective ideology. (Kreiger, 1982, p. 108)
In other words, while individuals from within a community have access to a particular
AND
of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns (in `To a louse'):
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!3
--even if they might have been horrified with what such power revealed to them
AND
standpoint, can quote this conclusion with apparent approval (Biddulph, 1996).
People from outside a community clearly can have an understanding of the experience of those
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and responses to that community of individuals and groups external to it.4
Finally, it must surely follow that if we hold that a researcher, who
AND
defined) understanding is the only kind of understanding which is worth having.
The epistemological argument (that outsiders cannot understand the experience of a community to which
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disempowered communities and it is to this that I shall now turn.
III OUTSIDERS IMPORT DAMAGING FRAMEWORKS OF UNDERSTANDING
Frequent in the literature about research into disability, women's experience, race and homosexuality is the claim that people from outside these particular communities will import into their research, for example, homophobic, sexist or racist frameworks of understanding, which damage the interests of those being researched.
In the case of research into disability it has been argued that outsider researchers carry
AND
, and selfdetermination are conspicuously absent' (Charlton, 1998 p. 27).
Discussing the neo-colonialism of outsider research into Maori experience, Smith extends this
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and structures of power' (Smith, 1999, p. 42).5
This position requires, I think, some qualification. First, researchers are clearly
AND
abounds with critiques of positivism as well as examples of its continuing expression.
I have placed much weight in these considerations on the importance of any research being
AND
, an opportunity which any researcher worth his or her salt will welcome.
Not all researchers or research processes will be as open as are described here to
AND
participants to address together in the interests of their mutual understanding and benefit.
Notwithstanding these considerations, one of the chief complaints coming out of disempowered communities is
AND
the richness of ``native voices''' ??Fine, 1994, p.22).
The argument that insiders within `disempowered' communities (or any other communities for that
AND
community what can understandably be experienced as an increasingly oppressive relationship with research.
There are, however, at last three reasons in principle for keeping the possibility
AND
the paternalism of the powerful, the route to a more just society.
How, then can we reconcile the importance of (1) wider social understanding
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researched which `emancipatory', `participatory' or `educative' research might take.
To begin with, we need to re-examine the application of the notion
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and family photographs' (Smith, 1999, pp. 15±16).
For some, what is required is a moving away from regarding research as a property and towards seeing it as a dialogic enquiry designed to assist the understanding of all concerned:
Educative research attempts to restructure the traditional relationship between researcher and `subject'. Instead
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the process. (Gitlin and Russell, 1994, p. 185)

1NC---Case
“Latin America” is a Eurocentric construction that reaffirms colonialism. In fact, there are plenty of populations in this region that don’t have Spanish or Portugese decent and their invocation of Latin America subverts those culture.
Halloway 10 (Thomas Holloway, Professor of Latin American History at the University of California at Davis, former Director of the Hemisphere Institute on the Americas. "Latin America: What's in a Name?". A Companion to Latin American History. https://www.academia.edu/202121/Latin_America_Whats_in_a_Name)
But there are other questions that need to be posed, in the age of
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access to resources—within Latin America, today and into the future.

The grouping of Latin America only exists for purposes of maintaining Eurocentric hegemony by categorizing races. The alternative is to vote negative to reject their conceptual use of Latin America even if the rest of the 1ac was correct
Halloway 10 (Thomas Holloway, Professor of Latin American History at the University of California at Davis, former Director of the Hemisphere Institute on the Americas. "Latin America: What's in a Name?". A Companion to Latin American History. https://www.academia.edu/202121/Latin_America_Whats_in_a_Name)

What constitutes “Latin America” and its “history”? All three of these
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Mexican border less relevant in distinguishing Anglo America from Latin America (Acuña1972).

Their all-encompassing description of blackness elevates whiteness to an all-pervasive force that explains all oppression – that re-inscribes its inevitability---specific analysis of racism is crucial
Margaret L. Andersen 3, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Delaware, 2003, “Whitewashing Race: A Critical Perspective on Whiteness,” in White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism, ed Doane and Bonilla-Silva, p. 28
Conceptually, one of the major problems in the whiteness literature is the reification of
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come to mean just about everything, it ends up meaning hardly anything.

Identity-politics is a vengeful politics of resentment, inevitably re-instantiating the terms of oppression
Bhambra 10—U Warwick—AND—Victoria Margree—School of Humanities, U Brighton (Identity Politics and the Need for a ‘Tomorrow’, http://www.academia.edu/471824/Identity_Politics_and_the_Need_for_a_Tomorrow_)
2 The Reification of Identity We wish to turn now to a related problem within
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to the identity being foreclosed through its attention to past-based grievances.

Making debate a forum to discuss personal experiences is a flawed starting point. No one should be forced to confront their privilege or oppression within a debate round- independently diverts our attention from structural inequalities
Andrea Smith 13, intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist, The Problem with “Privilege,” http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-problem-with-privilege-2013.html
This kind of politics then challenges the notions of “safe space” often prevalent
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open ourselves to new possibilities that we cannot imagine now for the future.

Civil society isn’t hard-wired to perpetuate racism --- capitalism is the only reason why slaves became commodities in the first place --- political reform to break down this violent system is key
SELFA 2010 (Lance, author of The Democrats: A Critical History, “The roots of racism,” 10/21/10, http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/21/the-roots-of-racism)
IT'S ONE of the oldest truisms around. Racism, it's said, is as
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abolish racism's chief source--capitalism--and build a new socialist society.

2NC

2NC---Overview
Only adopting a position of analytical nuance can create productive debates that move beyond either-or choices of social justice and move towards deciding between competing research methods--- starting points and analytical frames are crucial---only our framework effectuates the tools with which to analyze oppression  
Adolph Reed 12, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the interim national council of the Labor Party. RACE, CLASS, CRISIS: THE DISCOURSE OF RACIAL DISPARITY AND ITS ANALYTICAL DISCONTENTS, http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~merlinc/ReedChowkwanyunSR.pdf
Our call to transcend this stifling frame is absolutely not a call to ignore racial
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the forces that are intensifying inequality and undermines the capacity to challenge them. 

2NC---AT: You Didn’t Perform
The alt is a refinement on the 1ac’s speech act; the aff doesn’t have ownership over it or any way to maintain control over their discourse.  The assumption that the 1ac’s speech act was uniquely powerful misunderstands speech act theory.  If it’s true we can’t capture the 1ac’s discourse, then that means the 1ac’s discourse has zero power to change anything and you should vote neg on presumption
Young, 11 - assistant professor of Communication and Director of Forensics at Wayne State University (Kelly, “IMPOSSIBLE CONVICTIONS: CONVICTIONS AND INTENTIONALITY IN PERFORMANCE AND SWITCH-SIDE DEBATE” Contemporary Argumentation and Debate, ebsco) SSD = Switch Side Debate

Fourth, contemporary speech act theory provides new avenues for permutations or citation of performances
AND
is severely constrained by prior beliefs and intent) theory of discursive agency.
While performance teams might find the prospect of having their opponents strategically capturing their speech
AND
agency that they need in order to justify the impact of their arguments.

2NC---Intersectionality Link
Their discussion of racial and gender violence ignores the root causes behind those issues. Our arg is that all oppression is centered around class. It doesn’t deny the existence of racism and sexism but rather says those are results of capitalism
their focus on oppositional intersectionality downplays class antagonism
Deric Shannon and J. Rogue 13 (Dysophia is an Anarchist Magzine, http://dysophia.org.uk/dysophia-4-now-available/)
J. ROGUE is an intersectional anarchist-communist who has been organizing in anarchist
AND
radical politics. He is a believer in radically different presents and futures.
Too often people using an intersectional analysis ignore the uniqueness of various systems of domination
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such a social arrangement and replacing it with non-hierarchical social forms.
2NC---Cap First
Neoliberal market systems are the root cause of racial oppression --- only attacking the current legal system dismantles racism
Richardson, 97 (Noel C., “Is There a Current Incarceration Crisis in the Black Community? An Analysis of the Link Between Confinement, Capital, and Racism in the United States, 23 N.E. J. on Crim. and Civ. Con. 183, Winter 1997, lexis)
There is an historical link between capital and the confinement of blacks in the United States. For a dominant economic class, the state has used the confinement of blacks, both civilly and criminally, as a means by which to accumulate and protect capital. Furthermore, the state has utilized its legal system as the primary means by which to manage this exploitative social relationship.
Within the context of the radical construct, there are three fundamental assertions supporting this
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of the legal system as the means by which to foster capital accumulation.
To support this contention, this Note has highlighted distinct parallels between two periods:
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a dominant economic class through the oppression and confinement of a marginalized population.
Society cannot explain the existence of these parallels adequately as mere coincidence, or attribute
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society within an historical context, focusing on its legal and economic development.
Furthermore, social programs aside, the disproportionate incarceration of blacks in the United States and its resulting commerce will continue  *237  without drastic changes to the existing economic and class structure of American society. Because this type of dramatic overhaul does not appear likely given the entrenched nature of the dominant interests, observers and critics can expect to continue to see the role of blacks in the American economy tied to the criminal justice system. 380

2NC---AT: Perm 

Deciding between competing methodologies is necessary to ensure that the affirmative is forced to rigorously defend their strategy as optimal and can’t permute away superior mechanisms for fighting oppression---when we’re actually resolving social problems, political energy is limited and hence needs to be channeled---they should be forced to defend the 1ac itself as a political strategy
Iris Marion Young 6, was Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, Responsibility and Global Justice, sites.coloradocollege.edu/engaging-the-global/files/2013/01/Young_2006.pdf
So far, I have offered only a way of thinking about responsibility in general
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limited time, resources, and creative energy to respond to structural injustice?
Adequatelyrespondingtoquestionslikethesewouldtakeatleastanother fullessay.Thus,Iwillonlysketchanswershere,andillustratetheresponses once again through the example of the anti-sweatshop movement.
Some moral theorists argue that responsibility names a form of obli- gationdistinctfromduty.JoelFeinberg
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to accept her decision and the way she sets priorities for her actions.
These considerations begin to provide an answer to the question I stated above, namel
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justice, and some arguably have a greater degree of responsibility than others.

the basis for competition in this debate is not “race  vs class”---our alternative is a distinct analytical lens with which to approach the issues raised by the 1ac, which means there’s nothing to permute and their arguments for the perm are actually reasons the alt solves the case
Peter Mclaren 4, Education and Urban Schooling Division prof, UCLA—and Valerie Scatamburlo-D'Annibale; University of Windsor, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2004, www.freireproject.org/articles/node2065/RCGS/class_dismissed-val-peter.10.pdf
The urgency which animates Amin’s call for a collective socialist vision necessitates, as we
AND
by which it is called’ (Bannerji, 2000, p. 41).
The task for progressives today is to seize the moment and plant the seeds for
AND
1978, p. 25) doesn’t seem to be following Theory’s script.
AT: Cap Focus Racist

Starting their analysis of colonialism from the perspective of race is flawed--- Class is better starting point
TAYLOR 2011 Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review and a doctoral student in African American Studies at Northwestern University; “Race, class and Marxism,” SocialistWorker.org, http://socialistworker.org/2011/01/04/race-class-and-marxism
Marxists believe that the potential for that kind of unity is dependant on battles and
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one group of workers suffer oppression, it negatively impacts the entire class.

1NR
1NR---Overview
Their analogy posits medicine as the basis for understanding social phenomena---this simultaneously devalues alternatives to social death by implying that they are merely physical conditions and paradoxically fuels racist and colonialist civilizing missions wrapped in the trope of “healing”
Norridge 12 – Zoe Norridge, Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature at King's College London, Perceiving Pain in African Literature, p. 177-179

Alongside socio-economic considerations about the nature of healing work, there are further
AND
with the flaws and shortcomings on the healing systems within which they work.
Political struggles have nothing to do with medicine---their analogy provides zero productive value
Eysenck 84 – Hans J. Eysenck, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of London, Psychology and Its Allied Disciplines: Psychology and the Social Sciences, Ed. Bornstein, p. 39-41

Of major social importance is the use of the medical model of neurosis by psychiatrists
AND
but these are the province of psychology, not of medicine or psychiatry.
Medicalizing social life as a “coma” obscures immanent and contingent decisions that sustain systems of violence---this undermines resistance
Adam 5 – Heribert Adam, Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University, and ?Kogila Moodley, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking Between Israelis And Palestinians, p. xvi-xvii

One note on our methodological guiding thread: In analyzing emotionally charged conflicts, one
AND
and interests behind specific policies. They do not help to evaluate policy.

You can agree with the other portions of their method and vote neg---the alternative is functionally a refinement of the 1AC---debate is a method of contesting scholarship and we have criticized part of the way in which they presented their ideasit’s better to encourage dialogue and disagreement, but to have the corrective of exposing ideas to contestation, as in debate.
Bridges 1 – David Bridges, Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia, 2001, The Ethics of Outsider Research, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 35, No. 3

First, it is argued that only those who have shared in, and have
AND
the process. (Gitlin and Russell, 1994, p. 185)

1NR---AT: Permutation
The permutation cannot overcome the link---body metaphors reinscribe harmful power structures  
Schlosser 7 – Kolson Schlosser, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University, “The Bio-Politics of Bodies Politic: Nature and Intertextuality in Classic US Geopolitical Discourse”, GeoJournal, 69(3), p. 200-202

The above quote from Haass is only a very recent example, but such representations
AND
, p. 329). The following paragraphs explain how intertextuality accomplishes this.

The permutation makes it more difficult to solve the aff---they do not have a net benefit to the perm, a reason why including body metaphors is important---that presentation is promlematic and solidifies harmful control
Halliday 6 – John Halliday, Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Teacher Education: Professionalism, Social Justice and Teacher Education, Ed. Hartley and Whitehead, p. 157-158

Increasing the political distance between teachers and parents¶ One last political implication of the
AND
classroom instruction nothing less than a threat to an essential component of democracy.