Tournament: Harvard | Round: 1 | Opponent: Niles North HL | Judge: John Fowle
K
Cuba is insulated from neoliberal pressures now-eliminating the embargo reverses that
Barra, UNICEF international development consultant, 2010
Sacrificing Neoliberalism to Save Capitalism: Latin America Resists and Offers Answers to Crises”, Critical Sociology, 36.5, SAGE)

We may start by highlighting the emblematic Cuban case for its resistance under an American
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to establish broad and diverse international relations in order to trade with dignity.
Neoliberalism specifically in Latin America exacerbates inequality and justifies endless intervention — causes extinction – moral obligation to put those oppressed by the West at the center of decision making
Makwana 6 (Rajesh, STWR, 23rd November 06,
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of the poorest people to afford market prices, are both likely causes.
Reject neoliberalism to embrace Cubanalismo – endorsing Cuba’s economic model is key to demonstrate that alternatives exist outside dominant Western ideology  
Fanelli 8(Carlo Fanelli, Department of Sociology, York University, November 2008, “‘Cubanalismo’: The Cuban Alternative to Neoliberalism”, https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2andik=ca602910b8andview=attandth=1402883ba36493eeandattid=0.1anddisp=inlineandrealattid=f_hjp4psz20andsafe=1andzwandsaduie=AG9B_P_TyPHIjOArXXGZNtwjo8L5andsadet=1375382083142andsads=e9iC4I3SMN1yjSDGkdM0Hnivuwo) ZA

As this paper has attempted to integrate throughout this discussion, alternatives to neoliberalism do
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alternative modes of socioeconomic and environmental polices can and do continue to exist.

Appeasement
Hardlining with current sanctions now – continued credibility is key
Mason 2/12 (Jeff and Steve Holland, Reuters News, “US will deal harshly with violators of Iran sanctions, Obama says,” 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-usa-iran-idUSBREA1A2B920140211)

President Barack Obama issued a sharp warning on Tuesday to companies considering business deals with
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like a ton of bricks with respect to the sanctions that we control.”
Normalizing economic relations with Cuba kills credibility, emboldens adversaries, and turns the case
Brookes 9 (Peter is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. “KEEP THE EMBARGO, O” April 15, 2009, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_Oul9gWKYCFsACA0D6IVpvL)
*green highlighting

In the end, though, it's still Fidel Castro and his brother Raul who'll
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communist regime, we should hold firm onto the leverage the embargo provides.
Credibility is key to get Iran and other countries on board
Stephens 11/14/13 (Phillip, Financial Times reporter, “The four big truths that are shaping the Iran talks” http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/af170df6-4d1c-11e3-bf32-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lILwmeum)

By the same token, bombing Iran’s nuclear sites could certainly delay the programme,
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with Tehran about the speed and scope of a run down of sanctions.
Nuclear war
Jeffrey Goldberg 12, Bloomberg View columnist and a national correspondent for the Atlantic, January 23, 2012, “How Iran Could Trigger Accidental Armageddon,” online: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/how-iran-may-trigger-accidental-armageddon-commentary-by-jeffrey-goldberg.html
The experts who study this depressing issue seem to agree that a Middle East in
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must be stopped before it reaches fruition with a nuclear weapons delivery capability.”
CP
The United States federal government should establish normal trade relations with the Republic of Cuba if and only if the governments of a majority of Latin American nations commit to actively seeking a naturalization process between the United States and Cuba, and to compelling the Cuban government to work towards establishing representative democracy and better respect for human rights.
Counterplan solves the case---Latin American governments will say yes---it triggers Cuban reform that avoids a Vietnamese model during the transition---and it avoids politics
Castañeda 9 - Jorge G. Castañeda, professor at New York University and fellow at the New America Foundation, was Mexico's foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, April 21, 2009, “The Right Deal on Cuba,” online: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027198023237151.html

The question of what to do about the embargo has once again cornered an American
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change) would be a major foreign policy victory for Mr. Obama.
T
Interpretation – Engagement requires government to government DIRECT talks
Crocker ‘9 9/13/09, Chester A. Crocker is a professor of strategic studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, was an assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. “Terms of Engagement,” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/opinion/14crocker.html?_r=1and

PRESIDENT OBAMA will have a hard time achieving his foreign policy goals until he masters
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realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.

Violation – the aff just has the US normalize trade relations – doesn’t mandate talks with the Cuban government
Voting Issue:

1. Limits – there are countless companies that the USFG could engage with in the target countries
   2. Ground – the aff denies access to key DA links like country politics

Tournament: Lakeland | Round: 1 | Opponent: Bronx Science NR | Judge: Omer Bhatti
1NC 1
Text: The United States federal government should provide decentralized integrated photovoltaic electrification assistance to Mexico if and only if Mexico agrees to end human rights abuses. The United States federal government should enact a periodic certification process to determine that abuses are effectively investigated and prosecuted.
Congress should make assistance to Mexico contingent upon a periodic certification process to determine Mexican human rights abuses are investigated and prosecuted – counterplan effectively uses leverage to improve human rights conditions
HRW, 07 Human Rights Watch, the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse, 10/24, http://www.hrw.org/news/2007/10/23/mexico-us-aid-should-include-human-rights-conditions, “Mexico: US Aid Should Include Human Rights Conditions,” ADM
The US Congress should oppose counternarcotics assistance to Mexico unless it includes strong conditions aimed at ending abuses by Mexican security forces, Human Rights Watch said today. The Bush administration asked Congress on Monday to approve a US$500 million aid package to help Mexico improve its counternarcotics efforts and improve public security. Yet the Mexican military and law enforcement agencies responsible for counternarcotics operations have very poor human rights records. “Helping Mexico confront its brutal drug cartels is a good idea,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Giving a blank check to that country’s abusive security forces is not.” Over the past two years, Mexican soldiers have committed egregious abuses while engaged in law enforcement activities. In July 2006, for example, soldiers in Coahuila state beat seven municipal policemen and sexually abused 14 women, according to the national human rights ombudsman. In May 2007, soldiers arbitrarily detained 65 people in Michoacán state, holding some incommunicado at a military base, beating many of the detainees, and raping four minors. In June, soldiers opened fire against a truck in Sinaloa, killing five people, including three children, and injuring three others. Impunity for these human rights violations is the norm. The military justice system, which routinely exercises jurisdiction over military abuses, lacks the independence necessary to carry out credible investigations. The ability of military prosecutors to investigate abuses is further undermined by a fear of the army, which is widespread in many rural communities and which inhibits civilian victims and witnesses from providing information to military authorities. The US Congress should ensure that the release of the proposed funds be contingent upon a periodic certification process to determine that abuses committed during counternarcotics operations are thoroughly and effectively investigated and prosecuted. “The US Congress has an opportunity to use this aid as leverage to press Mexico’s security forces to improve their appalling human rights record,” said Vivanco.
Current measures to improve human rights in Mexico fail – the US has an obligation to condition aid and reform assessment methods
Daly et al, 12 Catherine, with Kimberly Heinle and David A. Shirk, Trans-Border Institute, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego, http://justiceinmexico.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/12_07_31_armed-with-impunity.pdf, “Armed with Impunity: Curbing Military Human Rights Abuses in Mexico,” ADM
Ongoing concerns about human rights abuses in Mexico raise questions about what can be done to address these issues under the framework of the Mérida Initiative, a multi-year U.S.-Mexico collaboration initiative launched in 2007. As Calderón declared, “It is indispensable… that the brunt of the battle against organized crime be fully assumed as a shared responsibility between the United States and Mexico.”128 Thus, through the Mérida Initiative, the United States has allocated over $1.6 billion in assistance to Mexico to bolster the fight against the shared threat of trans-national organized crime. By order of the U.S. Congress, 15 of the funds disbursed are conditioned on satisfactory reports of Mexico’s improvements in human rights protections from the U.S. Department of State, which is charged with coordinating U.S. efforts for the Mérida Initiative.129 In 2009, the U.S. State Department approved the release all conditional Mérida funding. The State Department openly admitted that it was unable to verify Mexico’s compliance with the stipulations, but indicated that substantial evidence showed that Mexico had made appropriate steps to improve the “improve police transparency and accountability, consult with Mexican human rights organizations and civil society on the Mérida Initiative, investigate and prosecute allegations of human rights abuses by security forces, and prohibit the use of torture.”130 In 2010, however, facing dissent from major human right groups, the State Department recommended withholding portions of the conditional funds pending further reform in Mexico, including legislative recognition of the legitimacy of international human rights obligations on par with the Constitution.131State Department decisions on these matters are informed by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), which examines country conditions, alleged abuses, and the views of organizations and multilateral institutions committed to human rights.132 DRL issues annual reports of the state of human rights in countries across the world as “promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy.”133 DRL thus informs and supports the Merida Initiative’s release of conditional funds. As Assistant Secretary of State for DRL states, “we have made a part of the Merida funding conditional on where we stand, and we’re in the process of reviewing that134.” However, DRL’s precise role and influence with regard to the overall framework of the Mérida Initiative is unclear. DRL is not formally charged with a specific role in evaluating human rights in relation to the Mérida Initiative, and is not regularly included in high-level consultations between the two countries regarding collaborative efforts through the program. This draws into question what measures are being taken to ensure that cooperation through the Mérida Initiative incorporates human rights protections into the overall framework of the program. The Obama Administration has expressed its commitment to promoting and respecting human rights worldwide. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the administration’s “human rights agenda for the twenty-first century is to make human rights a human reality” ensuring freedom from torture, discrimination, and “want of equality in law and in fact”.135On March 3, 2011, members of the U.S. House of Representatives addressed a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton urging the Obama Administration to “convey to Mexico our concerns regarding its system of military jurisdiction, as well as the importance we place on compliance with the human rights requirements established by the U.S. Congress.”136 The United States is in a powerful position to support Mexico’s efforts to combat drug trafficking organizations, but it also has an obligation to make sure that human rights are respected in the process. If the war on drugs is a joint task, then protecting against human rights violations and other unintended consequences also shared responsibility. 

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Sustainability is a myth – technological solutions to environmental problems only increase unsustainable consumption logic
Deneen 9 – Writer, teaches political theory at the University of Notre Dame. From 2005 through May, 2012, he taught at Georgetown University, where he was the Founding Director of the Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy.   Before that he taught at Princeton University from 1997-2005(Patrick J., “Against the Environment”, Jun 5, 2009, http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/against-the-environment/, Daehyun)
*We don’t endorse any offensive langauge

Alexandria, VA The other night I happened to catch the second half of an ABC special program, “Earth 2100.” The program was a “speculative history” of what the world might look like at the end of this century if humankind does not cease its consumptive, wasteful ways. I was struck that it included some “talking head” testimony from the likes of James Howard Kunstler and Richard Heinberg, both of whom have been prominent in efforts to educate fellow citizens about the perils that will accompany (or, are accompanying) “peak oil.” Kunstler in particular – but Heinberg as well – have urged their contemporaries to reconsider our current form of living, and above all to realize that the future is not one of “globalization,” but “re-localization” – either by choice or forced by necessity. We can have an orderly reconfiguration of our way of life in which our lives are lived much closer to where we are, or we can emerge from the chaos of oil shortages and resource wars in a condition just as local, but that may resemble gang or tribal forms of organization of the sort depicted in Kunstler’s recent novel A World Made by Hand. What struck me about the ABC program, however, is that its “reporters” were content – even eager – to broadcast the warnings of Kunstler and Heinberg in the long first part of the program (designed to get us to support some sort of action), but failed to bring them back onstage for roughly the last 30 minutes of the broadcast. That part of the program aimed to show us a “better future,” and was dominated by techno-optimists who believed that science and technology – alongside enlightened global government policies – would permit us to live almost exactly the same sorts of consumptive and autonomous lives we now lead. Nowhere was a voice to be heard suggesting the problems, if not outright foolishness (as Eugene Robinson does in today’s Washington Post in regard to “carbon capture and sequestration), of some of The Jetsons-like proposals. Nowhere was a voice to be found suggesting that we would have to live fundamentally differently – in particular, more regionally and locally, doing more things for ourselves, working more with our own hands, and supporting ourselves with an economy in which our contributions are more immediately visible and in which we are more obvious local participants. Nowhere was there a hint of the notion that to do less harm will mean at once to do less (consumption) and do more (work). The program aimed at fear induction to support ever-more centralized (world) governments and massive expenditures on new “green” technologies. (NB: See Sharon Astyk’s earlier analysis of Al Gore’s similar assumptions in a terrific posting from 2008, in which she explodes the idea that you can have any such intensification of (fossil fuel) investments and expect to come out the other side as a transformed, low energy growth economy.) This is the conceit of “environmentalism,” its fundamental flaw – and why it is today so popular. What it offers the world is a techno-perfected future in which we have overcome natural limits – including, it seems, the second law of thermodynamics and attendant entropy – by retaining a world of permanent increase and consumption (the “developing” world, it is assumed, will develop to first world standards using the magic of technology, somehow avoiding the predictable result of a world stripped bare), supporting “lifestyles” of autonomy and cosmopolitanism, all the while ceasing in any significant way the consumption of the planet’s bounty and the damage to ecosystems. We have gone from a totalitarian relationship with nature – in which our demand is met by force – to a fantastical science-fiction relationship, in which we can have everything for nothing. These are the leading conceits of our two current “parties” – our “conservative liberals” who channel Francis Bacon’s view that humankind should master nature, or our “liberal progressives” who adapt a fanciful Marxian belief that we can have all the material bounties of capitalism with none of its downside. What is studiously avoided is consideration of what kind of civilization we would have to build if exercise of self-control, restraint of appetite, and commitment to the health of places was to replace our current ethic of consumption, indolency, itinerancy, autonomy and mobility. While the former was in many ways the logical conclusion of the “warnings” that the program was promoting, the idea that we should actually alter our basic set of operating assumptions was clearly off the table. Ironically, the commercial “interruptions” underscored that ABC’s more fundamental commitment was to continue things as they are. Further, what is striking in these sorts of programs – and the general ethic of “environmentalism” – is studied avoidance of the word nature itself. We should see clearly the reason for the preference of the word “environment.” As I’ve written elsewhere and earlier, unconsciously many today adopt and embrace the word “environment” without reflection on its meaning. This is unfortunate, as the very unconscious way in which we use the word obscures how deeply embedded is our antipathy toward nature. An “environment” is something that surrounds us: it environs us, provides us space we occupy and in which we move. I discovered during a recent trip to Italy that the preferred Italian term is “ambiente” – a word that similarly expresses an externalization of the object that surrounds us. On the one hand it turns the “environment” into a separate entity; on the other hand, it makes humans distinct from the world they occupy. It’s worth reflecting on why we have so readily embraced the term “environment” but utterly eschew the word “nature.” Nature, of course, is the “normative” term of Aristotelianism and Thomism: it is a standard and represents a limitation. Humans are creatures of and in nature. We are subject to its laws and to its strictures. Nature is not separate from us; we are natural creatures (special ones – political animals – but animals nonetheless). To employ the word “nature” would mean a fundamental reconceptualization of the relationship of humans to the world with which we live. Rather than either extending human mastery over our “environment” or attempting to stamp out the contagion of humanity, to re-claim the language of nature would require us to change our fundamental conception of a proper way of living well. Living as conscious natural creatures in nature requires the careful negotiation between use and respect, alteration and recognition of limits to manipulation, and thus calls for the virtues of prudence and self-governance. Neither of these virtues are particularly valued in the “environmental” movement, whether that advanced by corporate America in the effort to continue our growth economy of itinerant vandals or the fantasy-based, “have it all” wishful thinking of our techno-environmentalists. Until we reacquaint ourselves with the language, and more importantly, the reality of nature, we will continue in our current condition of human-environmental dualism, or delusion.

The aff creates the myth of a "dirty, foreign" where the First World exploits the Third World.  
Mannathukkaren 12(Nissim, Associate Professor, International Development Studies, Dalhousie University, “Garbage as our alter ego”, Nov 3, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/garbage-as-our-alter-ego/article4059003.ece)
If there is one thing that is symptomatic of the modern human condition, but hardly recognised as such, it is garbage. Garbage is capitalism’s dark underbelly, its pathological alter ego. That is why we keep disavowing it, refusing to believe it exists. Vilappilsala standoff But the more we deny it, it rears its ugly head, as most recently, in Vilappilsalapanchayat in Kerala where the standoff between the local people, who are opposed to the reopening of a waste treatment plant, and the State has left 2 lakh tonnes of solid waste lying unprocessed, threatening an environmental disaster. It is, therefore, remarkable that the current boisterous debate on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail in India has completely ignored the question of garbage. By focusing only on the supposed virtues of waste reduction in perishable goods (like fruits and vegetables) brought about by the better storage facilities of retail conglomerates, the issue of the latter’s humongous ecological footprint (for example, in terms of sprawl, increase in driving, and the proliferation of non-biodegradable waste) has been bypassed. According to a report from The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Washington, D. C., in the 20-year period from 1990, the same period in which Walmart grew to be a behemoth, the average number of miles that a U.S. household travelled for shopping increased by around 1000. And from 2005 to 2010, despite Walmart’s initiation of a reduced waste programme, its reported greenhouse gas emissions shot up by 14 per cent. Big-box stores don’t just improve efficiency in consumption, they also increase consumption manifold, which ultimately results in phenomenal amounts of trash. The garbage generated by Americans annually reportedly amounts to 220 million tonnes, and 80 per cent of U.S. goods are used only once before being trashed. In the mythologiesof modernisation and development, we sing paeans to skyscrapers and nuclear plants. But there is no accompanying dirge about the costs we have had to pay for them. If there was, then we would have heard of Puente Hills — the largest active landfill/waste dump in the United States, which is a 1,365-acre monstrosity — as much as we have about the World Trade Center or the Empire State Building. It is ironical, Edward Humes tells us in his book Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, to call Puente Hills a “landfill,” for the garbage mountain has long ceased to fill a depression in the land and rises now an unbelievable 500 feet above the ground, a space capable of holding 15 million elephants. It takes, of course, a gargantuan effort, as Humes describes, to keep the toxic substance that leaks out of the 130-million tonnewaste (which includes 3 million tonnes of soiled disposable diapers — another “important” invention of modern life) from poisoning groundwater sources. Nevertheless, waste is seen, in popular development discourse as a “third world” problem, the ubiquitous mountains of garbage that blight the face of cities and towns in the poorer parts of the world — one of the first tasks that the newly-elected President in Egypt had was cleaning up the garbage mess in Cairo. And the citizens of the third world have internalised this discourse, seeing themselves as part of the “dirty” developing world blissfully unaware of the cost at which a “clean” developed world is maintained. Thus the story of the Somali pirates plundering the high seas has become a part of global lore but not that of Somalia being a (cheap) dumping ground for some of the most toxic garbage, including nuclear and medical waste, from Europe for the last two decades and more. As long as the streets are clean in Frankfurt and Paris, does it matter that children are born in Somalia without limbs? ‘Waste imperialism’ It is in this context of “waste imperialism” that the question of garbage needs to come out of its subterranean existence and occupy centre stage in any discussion on development, including FDI in retail. It is not accidental that dumping grounds, and waste treatment plants are invariably located in places where the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of the population live, whether in the developed or developing worlds. Not surprisingly, garbage has become an important political tool in the present with garbage strikes and struggles around garbage taking place in various cities in the West and elsewhere. The contestation in Vilappilsala has been going on since 2000 when the waste treatment plant opened with serious ecological impact. We would be living in a mythical world if we think that the problems of waste can be solved only with better rational planning, management or recycling. In the U.S., even after decades of environmental education, only around 24 per cent of the garbage is recycled with nearly 70 per cent of it going into landfills. Simply throwing trash into the recycling bin hardly does anything to reduce the production of rubbish; on the contrary it might lull us into a false sense of complacency as Heather Rogers, the author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage argues. This is because household waste constitutes a minuscule percentage of the total waste produced, the vast majority of which is constituted by waste from industrial processes. As she shows, the mantra of recycling and green capitalism has been adopted by corporations and big business because it is the least threatening of the options to profit margins — no wonder, the rate of production of goods and, consequently, trash has only increased. More importantly, in this “greenwashing,” the responsibility of cleaning up the environment is displaced from corporations to people themselves in their own individual, personal capacities. Economy of ‘zero waste’ To be sure, there are rare examples like Germany, which have nearly eliminated landfills, and recycle up to 70 per cent of the waste. But the fact that the Cröbern Central Waste Treatment Plant in Germany, one of the most sophisticated plants in the world (built at a cost of $ 135 million), has been allegedly involved in criminal garbage profiteering by illegally securing solid waste from Italy (to sustain the operations of the plant) shows how tenuous and fragile the economy of “zero waste” is. Ultimately, the problem of waste cannot be fathomed without recognising the order of capitalism, which is built on the relentless production of commodities and the philosophy of planned obsolescence, in which goods are built to have short shelf life. As Sarah Moore of the University of Arizona has pithily pointed out the contradiction: “Modern citizens have come to expect the places they live, work, play, and go to school to be free of garbage — to be ordered and clean. These expectations can never be fully met, however, precisely because the same processes of modernization that have produced them have also produced a situation in which garbage proliferates.” The “golden age of capitalism” is thus also the “golden age of garbage.” Just between 1960 and 1980, solid waste in the U.S. increased by four times. This is the exponential growth in garbage the world over, which has rendered the Pacific Ocean awash with plastic particles thus making plastic outnumber zooplankton at a shocking rate of 6:1. And this is the growth that has ironically made garbage and its disposal a multi-billion dollar business, and has made the mafia enter and control it, as in Italy. Developing countries like India, with almost non-existent waste disposal systems, catastrophically seek to move to the next (superfluous) stage of consumption by imbibing the culture of Walmart. In this scenario, if justicefor both human beingsand nature has to be ensured, the alter ego of garbage can no longer be hidden under the carpet. It has to be confronted head on. 

It’s try-or-die for the alternative – individually rejecting the consumptive mindset is essential to degrowth – it’s the root cause of the 1acs harms
Alexander 12Samuel, lecturer at the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne, Australia, “DEGROWTH IMPLIES VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION”, Simplicity Institute Report 12b, 2012)
The global economy is exceeding the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet, and it has been for some time (Global Footprint Network, 2012; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). This ‘ecological overshoot’ is being driven by the escalation and expansion of Western-­?style consumer lifestyles, which are highly resource and energy intensive. It is now commonplace to acknowledge that humankind would need more than five planets if North American lifestyles were universalised (e.g. Scott, 2009: 2). With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by mid-­?century, it is increasingly clear that these high consumption lifestyles are unsustainable and certainly not universalizable. The science of climate change, furthermore, implies that we must decarbonise consumer lifestyles without delay (Hansen, 2011), and the spectre of ‘peak oil’ suggests that the supply of cheap petroleum upon which consumer societies and their growth-­?orientated economies are based, may be coming to an end (Heinberg, 2011; Alexander, 2011a). All this means that ‘business as usual’ is simply not an option, and it may well be that the persistent delays in responding to these serious issues means that it is now too late to avoid some form of ‘great disruption’ to life as we know it (Gilding, 2011). What makes this admittedly gloomy situation even more troubling is that empirical research shows that many of those who have attained the Western-­?style consumerist ideal may not be finding such lifestyles all that fulfilling (Lane, 2000). Technological progress and economic growth, it would seem, cannot solve all our problems or answer for us the question of how we ought to live. For these reasons, among others, it has never been more urgent to rethink contemporary practices of consumption. But the news is not all grim. The fact that many in the global consumer class are not finding high consumption lifestyles particularly fulfilling raises the tantalizing possibility that people could increase their quality of life by voluntarily reducing their material and energy consumption. This is sometimes called the ‘double dividend’ of sustainable consumption (Jackson, 2005), for the reason that ‘simpler’ lifestyles of reduced consumption can benefit the planet while also being in the immediate and long-­? term self-­?interest of the individual (Brown and Kasser, 2005). Exchanging some superfluous consumption for more free time is one path to this ‘double dividend.’ Reducing superfluous consumption can also open up space for a ‘triple’ or even ‘quadruple’ dividend, on the grounds that low-­?consumption lifestyles of voluntary simplicity have the potential to generate communitarian or humanitarian benefits too (e.g. by leaving more resources for others in greater need). It has even been suggested that lifestyles of voluntary simplicity, focusing as they do on non-­?materialistic forms of meaning and fulfilment, might provide something of an antidote to the spiritual malaise that seemingly inflicts many people within materialistic cultures today (Alexander, 2011b; Myers, 2000). But if indeed there are multiple dividends to sustainable consumption, including self-­?interested ones, why does the global consumer class consume so much? Are we not free to step out of the rat race and simply consume less? Unfortunately, things are not that simple. Our lifestyle decisions, especially our consumption decisions, are not made in a vacuum. Instead, they are made within social, economic, and political structures of constraint, and those structures make some lifestyle decisions easy or necessary and other lifestyle decisions difficult or impossible. Change the social, economic, and political structures, however, and different consumption practices would or could emerge. With a practical focus, this paper seeks to develop some of the theoretical work that has already been done in this area (Jackson and Papathanasopoulou, 2008; Jackson, 2003; Sanne, 2002; Ropke, 1999). More specifically, this paper examines the extent to which people in consumer societies are ‘locked in’ to high consumption, energy-­?intensive lifestyles, and it explores ways that structural changes could facilitate a societal transition to practices of more sustainable consumption. This subject should be of interest to all those broadly engaged in work on sustainability, for the reasons outlined in the opening paragraph. But it should be of particular interest to those who have been convinced that the richest nations, if indeed they are serious about realising a sustainable world, ought to be initiating a degrowthprocess of planned economic contraction, with the aim of moving toward a socially desirable, ecologically sustainable, steady state economy (Kallis, 2011, Alexander, 2012a). It barely needs stating that a degrowth or steady state economy will never emerge voluntarily within societies that are generally comprised of individuals seeking ever-­?higher levels of income and consumption. It follows that any transition to such an economy will depend upon people in those societies transitioning away from consumer lifestyles and embracing lifestyles of reduced and restrained consumption. This may seem like an unlikely cultural revolution, and it is, but if it is a necessary cultural precondition to the emergence of a degrowth or steady state economy, then it is an issue of critical importance that ought to be given due attention. In short, a macroeconomics of degrowth imply lifestyles of voluntary simplicity, in much the same way as a macroeconomics of limitless growth imply lifestyles of insatiable consumption. If it is the case, however, that contemporary consumer societies are structured in such a way to oppose lifestyles of voluntary simplicity, then it is important that those structures are exposed and challenged. Put otherwise, we must understand how our societies function to lock people into high consumption lifestyles and then set about changingthose structures to better facilitate practices of sustainable consumption. Structural change will not be enough, on its own, of course; there also needs to be a shift in values (Murtaza, 2011). However, it is tragic to think that there are some people living consumer lifestyles today who genuinely want to consume more sustainably, but who find it difficult or impossible, for structural reasons, to actually live lives of voluntary simplicity and put those values fully into practice. It is more tragic still if those consumerist structures are inhibiting people from increasing their quality of life through reduced consumption. This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of the relationship between consumer behaviour and the structures which shape that behaviour, in the hope that the existing barriers to sustainable consumption can be overcome.
1NC 3
Interpretation: Engagement must be integration through increased contact
Dueck 6 (Colin, assistant professor of political science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the author of Reluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture and Change in American Grand Strategy, “Strategies for Managing Rogue States,” Orbis Volume 50, Issue 2, Spring 2006, Pages 223–241, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030438706000056)

Engagement, a popular concept in recent years, actually has several possible meanings and is used in a number of different ways. It can refer to (1) a stance of diplomatic or commercial activism internationally;8 (2) the simple fact of ongoing political or economic contact with an existing counterpart or adversary; (3) using such political or economic contact as a strategy in itself, in the hopes that this contact will create patterns of cooperation, integration, and interdependence with a rogue state;9 (4) a strategy under which international adversaries enter into a limited range of cooperative agreements, alongside continued rivalry or competition;10 or (5) the very act of diplomacy, negotiating, or bargaining, regardless of its content. Only the third definition, focusing on integration through contact, is analytically useful. The first is too vague to be of much use; the second is a condition rather than a strategy; the fourth is more accurately captured by détente; and as to the last definition, there is no compelling reason to abandon the words “diplomacy,” “negotiating,” or “bargaining” when they have served very well up to now.11

Violation – the aff doesn’t increase contact, only maintains current levels of  contact

Interpretation – Engagement requires government to government DIRECT talks
Crocker ‘9 9/13/09, Chester A. Crocker is a professor of strategic studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, was an assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. “Terms of Engagement,” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/opinion/14crocker.html?_r=1and

PRESIDENT OBAMA will have a hard time achieving his foreign policy goals until he masters some key terms and better manages the expectations they convey. Given the furor that will surround the news of America’s readiness to hold talks with Iran, he could start with “engagement” — one of the trickiest terms in the policy lexicon The Obama administration has used this term to contrast its approach with its predecessor’s resistance to talking with adversaries and troublemakers. His critics show that they misunderstand the concept of engagement when they ridicule it as making nice with nasty or hostile regimes. Let’s get a few things straight. Engagement in statecraft is not about sweet talk. Nor is it based on the illusion that our problems with rogue regimes can be solved if only we would talk to them. Engagement is not normalization, and its goal is not improved relations. It is not akin to détente, working for rapprochement, or appeasement. So how do you define an engagement strategy? It does require direct talks. There is simply no better way to convey authoritative statements of position or to hear responses. But establishing talks is just a first step. The goal of engagement is to change the other country’s perception of its own interests and realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.

Violation – the aff simply provides assistance without having bilateral talks
Voting Issue:

1. Predictable Limits – literature consensus increases interdependence – means the neg can’t possibly be prepared to clash against it and there are countless companies that the USFG could engage with in the target countries
   2. Ground – pressure flips the direction of the topic – it destroys key neg link ground on generics because K and DA links and CP competition relies on increasing interdependence and denies access to key DA links like country politics
   1NC 4
   TPA will pass with Obama push
   Reuters 2-25 “Democrats must give Obama trade promotion authority,” Reuters, February 25, 2014, http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/02/25/give-obama-trade-promotion-authority/, Accessed 2-26-14 –ZS

President Barack Obama declared in his State of the Union speech, “We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment and open new markets to new goods stamped ‘Made in the USA.’ China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. Neither should we.” Republicans agree. But the president has not followed through on his call for legislative action. Giving him trade promotion authority would put two large trade deals on a fast track to completion. It appears politics have intruded. The president has given in to members of his party who oppose granting fast-track authority because the trade deals might alienate friendly special-interest groups in an election year. He reportedly did not even mention the issue when speaking to the House Democratic Caucus at its annual retreat. Then Vice President Joe Biden, addressing the same group, said the White House would be backing off the issue in deference to Democrats’ political concerns. After five years of economic stagnation and high unemployment, we should be seizing every opportunity to create more jobs and get the economy growing at a faster pace. We could do that today in both the Senate and House by passing legislation giving the president the authority to wrap up the two trade pacts — all without adding a dime to the deficit. Presidents of both parties have in the past used trade promotion authority to negotiate trade agreements that help American farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs and job creators gain access to new consumers around the globe. By renewing the authority, which expired in 2007, Congress sets the rules for the proposed trade agreements and, in return, agrees to allow for a straight up-or-down vote when the agreements come before it. The Department of Commerce recently announced that the United States exported $2.3 trillion of goods and services in 2013, setting another record for the fourth consecutive year. According to economists, every billion dollar of additional exports creates about 5,000 well-paying U.S. jobs. Roughly 10 million jobs nationwide are tied directly to exports. In fact, exports have created 1.3 million new jobs just since 2010. Exports of U.S. agricultural products reached a record $141 billion in 2012, up from less than $90 billion five years earlier. More than 1 in 5 jobs in South Dakota is tied to trade, according to estimates in a recent Business Roundtable study, up from 11 percent in 1992. But we can do better. The trade agreements with 11 Asia-Pacific countries and the 28 European Union nations would open up access to one billion consumers around the globe. That could translate into thousands of new jobs and faster economic growth. This opportunity can only become reality, however, if the president has the authority to close the deals. Foreign nations won’t put their best offers on the table if they believe Congress will renegotiate an agreement. Trade promotion authority, and the trade agreements it will enable, is the best way to bring down foreign barriers to U.S. products and services. Our market is already largely open to foreign imports. Shouldn’t we demand that other nations return the favor? Fast-tracking trade agreements has another big benefit. It would promote the creation of high-paying, research-intensive jobs in the U.S. by better protecting intellectual property — everything from life-saving medicines to cutting-edge software and computing — of U.S. companies doing business overseas. The president is the only person who can ensure that the United States will keep pace in the global competitive economy. If he is serious about seeing this important legislation passed, he should stop paying lip service to trade promotion authority and pick up the phone and urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and members of Congress to support it.
Obama’s PC is key
McKenna 2/10 – (Barrie, Columnist and business correspondent with the Globe and Mail, “Washington’s tangled politics could slow Trans-Pacific Partnership,” 2/10/14, The Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/washingtons-tangled-politics-could-slow-trans-pacific-partnership/article16771118/?service=mobile)

A new TPA bill is now before Congress. But the odds of it being approved don’t look good. Mr. Obama’s popularity has been dented by the Obamacare debate and its troubled implementation. It’s tougher for him to get what he wants. Many key Democrats in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, along with a key slice of Mr. Obama’s voter base – environmentalists and labour unions – are opposed to the legislation. Free-trade advocates and political watchers say Mr. Obama has been slow to use his political muscle to push the TPA bill. “This should have been driven by presidential leadership a year ago, and as a result it’s going to be an enormous challenge,” said Philip English, a former Republican House member from Pennsylvania and now co-chair of government relations at the Arent Fox law firm in Washington, D.C. “The White House and the U.S. Trade Representative will have to expend political capital to make the progress necessary.” Mr. English reckons the chance of passage may be less than 50 per cent. Mr. Obama will need at least 50 Democratic votes in the House of Representatives and whole lot more co-operation from allies in the Senate, including Ron Wyden, the incoming chairman of the Senate finance committee. “There are a lot of moving parts in TPA and a lot of legitimate cause of concern,” he added. Compounding the murky outlook of the TPA bill, the United States is now negotiating entry of Canada, Japan and perhaps soon South Korea into the trans-Pacific pact, which would tie 12 countries around the Pacific rim into a massive free-trade area. As Mr. Obama trolls for votes in a skeptical Congress, he is being forced to push other countries to make deeper trade concessions. Getting those votes might involve pain for Canada.
Renewable incentives drain capital – Obama must push through political minefield and congressional resistance. Any new renewable bill kills capital.
Howell 12
Katie Howell and Hannah Northey, EandE reporters, Environment and Energy Daily, 2/13/12, lexis

With fresh clout, White House likely will continue clean energy spending pushAll indications suggest President Obama will continue forging ahead into the political minefield of hefty clean energy investments when he rolls out his fiscal 2013 spending wish list for the Energy Department and other federal agencies later this morning. Despitean ongoing scandal surrounding a DOE loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra and a lackluster response from Congress over his previous efforts to boost clean energy spending, Obama has hinted he is not slacking off in his push to ramp up federal investment in the sector. Indeed, Obama dedicated a significant portion of his State of the Union address last month to energy spending. "I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here," he said during the speech. "Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail," he added in reference to Solyndra. "But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy." Over the past few months, the White House has carefully been making its case for strong clean energy investments. Last year, the administration began touting its early investments in hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking -- technology, which has helped drive a natural gas boom in the United States, as justification for current investments in new clean energy technologies (EandE Daily, Feb. 14, 2011). And that approach went primetime this year when Obama made a direct link between the two in his State of the Union address. "By the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock -- reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground," Obama said. SaloZelermyer, a former DOE lawyer during the George W. Bush administration who now works for Bracewell and Giuliani, said Obama's State of the Union remarks indicate he is still strongly pushingclean energy investments. "I think it seems clear based on the president's remarks in the State of the Union that he remains committed to -- one could argue -- doubling down on his bets on clean energy investments to the point that in the State of the Union he used the example of technological achievements that have led to fracking and shale gas recovery as a means of arguing that investments such as the ones made in Solyndra and other loan guarantee projects are entirely worth it for the public," Zelermyer said. On Friday, the White House circulated an independent review it requested on the loan guarantee program. That report said that while there was room for improvement in the program, DOE wasn't being too risky with taxpayers' money, a statement many Democrats immediately hailed as vindication (EandENews PM, Feb. 10). Still, the White Houseis not likely to use its newfound political clouton clean energy investments to pour more money intothe loan guarantee program, which got its most significant influx of cash from the 2009 stimulus law. Instead, observers say, Obama will likely request near-fiscal 2012 funding levels for DOE clean energy research and developmentprograms. "While I don't expect any grand new proposal for funding -- certainly for the clean technology loan guarantees, there may be some sort of minimal level to continue that program," Zelermyer said. "I would anticipate a request for funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and other research offices ... will be in line with what came out in the last budget request." But the 2012 request didn't fare so well among fiscally minded Republicans in Congress. In fact, lawmakersroughly halved the appropriation for DOEresearch and development programs compared with the White House request. For example, the White House requested $3.2 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, but Congress appropriated $1.8 billion. And the White House called for $550 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, but Congress appropriated $275 million. Other budget priorities Republicans in Congress will get their first chance Thursday to blast the proposed spending plan during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing with Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
TPA solves trade and economic growth
Evans 1/20 (Micheal, Frank Schweitzer, Ryan Severson, JDSupra Business Advisor, 1/20/2014, “Trade Promotion Authority Legislation Could Have Significant Impact on U.S. Trade Agenda”, http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/trade-promotion-authority-legislation-co-05075/)

The bill includes statutorily-mandated negotiating objectives; sets out requirements related to notification, consultations, and access to information; and also lays out the procedures for the implementation of trade agreements. The legislation includes many of the largely familiar overall objectives from previous versions of trade promotion authority, including obtaining better market access, reducing trade and investment barriers, fostering economic growth, raising living standards, increasing U.S. competitiveness, and enhancing the global economy. The new bill recognizes the increasingly “multi-sectoral nature of trade and investment activity” and also calls for “strengthening the effective operation of legal regimes and the rule of law.”
Decline causes global nuclear war
Harris and Burrows 9 Mathew, PhD European History @ Cambridge, counselor of the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Jennifer, member of the NIC’s Long Range Analysis Unit “Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical Effects of the Financial Crisis” http://www.ciaonet.org/journals/twq/v32i2/f_0016178_13952.pdf

Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and indeed believes the future is likely to be the result of a number of intersecting and interlocking forces. With so many possible permutations of outcomes, each with ample Revisiting the Future opportunity for unintended consequences, there is a growing sense of insecurity. Even so, history may be more instructive than ever. While we continue to believe that the Great Depression is not likely to be repeated, the lessons to be drawn from that period include the harmful effects on fledgling democracies and multiethnic societies (think Central Europe in 1920s and 1930s) and on the sustainability of multilateral institutions (think League of Nations in the same period). There is no reason to think that this would not be true in the twenty-first as much as in the twentieth century. For that reason, the ways in which the potential for greater conflict could grow would seem to be even more apt in a constantly volatile economic environment as they would be if change would be steadier. In surveying those risks, the report stressed the likelihood that terrorism and nonproliferation will remain priorities even as resource issues move up on the international agenda. Terrorism’s appeal will decline if economic growth continues in the Middle East and youth unemployment is reduced. For those terrorist groups that remain active in 2025, however, the diffusion of technologies and scientific knowledge will place some of the world’s most dangerous capabilities within their reach. Terrorist groups in 2025 will likely be a combination of descendants of long established groups_inheriting organizational structures, command and control processes, and training procedures necessary to conduct sophisticated attacks and newly emergent collections of the angry and disenfranchised that become self-radicalized, particularly in the absence of economic outlets that would become narrower in an economic downturn. The most dangerous casualty of any economically induced drawdown of U.S. military presence would almost certainly be the Middle East. Although Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons is not inevitable, worries about a nuclear-armed Iran could lead states in the region to develop new security arrangements with external powers, acquire additional weapons, and consider pursuing their own nuclear ambitions. It is not clear that the type of stable deterrent relationship that existed between the great powers for most of the Cold War would emerge naturally in the Middle East with a nuclear Iran. Episodes of low intensity conflict and terrorism taking place under a nuclear umbrella could lead to an unintended escalation and broader conflict if clear red lines between those states involved are not well established. The close proximity of potential nuclear rivals combined with underdeveloped surveillance capabilities and mobile dual-capable Iranian missile systems also will produce inherent difficulties in achieving reliable indications and warning of an impending nuclear attack. The lack of strategic depth in neighboring states like Israel, short warning and missile flight times, and uncertainty of Iranian intentions may place more focus on preemption rather than defense, potentially leading to escalating crises. 36 Types of conflict that the world continues to experience, such as over resources, could reemerge, particularly if protectionism grows and there is a resort to neo-mercantilist practices. Perceptions of renewed energy scarcity will drive countries to take actions to assure their future access to energy supplies. In the worst case, this could result in interstate conflicts if government leaders deem assured access to energy resources, for example, to be essential for maintaining domestic stability and the survival of their regime. Even actions short of war, however, will have important geopolitical implications. Maritime security concerns are providing a rationale for naval buildups and modernization efforts, such as China’s and India’s development of blue water naval capabilities. If the fiscal stimulus focus for these countries indeed turns inward, one of the most obvious funding targets may be military. Buildup of regional naval capabilities could lead to increased tensions, rivalries, and counterbalancing moves, but it also will create opportunities for multinational cooperation in protecting critical sea lanes. With water also becoming scarcer in Asia and the Middle East, cooperation to manage changing water resources is likely to be increasingly difficult both within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world.

Centralized Injustice
War is the root cause of structural violence – not the other way around
Goldstein 1, Joshua, Int’l Rel Prof @ American U, 2001, War and Gender, p. 412
First, peace activists face a dilemma in thinking about causes of war and working for peace. Many  peace scholars and activists support the approach, “if you want peace, work for justice.” Then, if one  believes that sexism contributes to war one can work for gender justice specifically (perhaps among  others) in order to pursue peace. This approach brings strategic allies to the peace movement (women,  labor, minorities), but rests on the assumption that injustices cause war. The evidence in this book  suggests that causality runs at least as strongly the other way. War is not a product of capitalism,  imperialism, gender, innate aggression, or any other single cause, although all of these influence wars’  outbreaks and outcomes. Rather, war has in part fueled and sustained these and other injustices.9 So,”if  you want peace, work for peace.” Indeed, if you want justice (gender and others), work for peace.  Causality does not run just upward through the levels of analysis, from types of individuals, societies, and  governments up to war. It runs downward too. Enloe suggests that changes in attitudes towards war and  the military may be the most important way to “reverse women’s oppression.” The dilemma is that  peace work focused on justice brings to the peace movement energy, allies, and moral grounding, yet, in light  of this book’s evidence, the emphasis on injustice as the main cause of war seems to be empirically  inadequate.  
Complexity proves that foreign aid will fail
Their Authors Ramalingam and Jones 08  (Ben Ramalingam, Research Associate and Harry Jones, Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute, Working Paper 285, “Exploring the science of complexity: Ideas and implications for development and humanitarian efforts,” October, 2008, p. 62, http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/833.pdf)

Despite the work-in-progress nature of complexity science, the applications we have examined give us confidence that the concepts of complexity can be used to highlight new possibilities for understanding development and humanitarian problems. In the authors’ own work in developing strategies for organisational learning and building international networks, we have found the concepts of complexity can be used to provide a very useful basis for understanding why a particular change initiative was unsuccessful, as well as to construct a pragmatic basis for conceptualising and planning change initiatives. On the basis of our exploration of complexity, and our experience of working on different kinds of change initiatives, we would argue that the concepts of complexity theory provide a series of important stepping stones towards a more realistic understanding of the limitations of aid. For the aid system and the agencies that occupy it, some of these stepping stones may be too slippery to stand on; others may already be well trodden. Looking at the bigger picture, we recognise the current potential for complexity science to contribute to a new paradigm for development and humanitarian work, but – as discussed later – the nature of change in the aid sector may make it unlikely that this paradigm will become a fully realised practical reality in the near future. The concepts of complexity science provide a basis for understanding different aspects of ‘messy realities’ – aspects which may not otherwise be well understood or systematically investigated. These aspects include the kinds of systems that manifest messy realities, the nature of change, and the behaviour of actors. Some of the concepts tap into familiar ways of thinking, while others develop ideas and insights that are more novel.
Disposability claims are inflated. They are meaninglessly attributed and the models are guaranteed to produce high death counts.
Maley ’88  (William, Prof. and Founding Dir.  Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy – Australian National University, The Australian Outlook, “Peace Studies: A Conceptual and Practical Critique”, 42:1, p. 29-30)
Various authors have sought to operationalise the concept of 'structural' violence'. These attempts to produce objective indices of 'structural violence' have resulted, however, in the creation of painfully simplistic models which explain nothing at all. Perhaps the most extreme example can be found in a study by Gernot  and Norman Alcock, which sought to estimate the number of fatalities caused worldwide by 'structural violence' in 1965. In a first model, for each country n, they treated fatalities from structural violence as the difference between the ratio of the population of n to the life expectancy for n, and the ratio of the population of n to the life expectancy for Sweden. In a second model, a constructed 'Egalitarian' life expectancy replaced that for Sweden in the first model." According to the first model, 7,900 Australians fell victim to structural violence in 1965, a small total compared with the 22,000 French victims, the 31,000 Spaniards, and the 40,000 citizens of the United Kingdom."  The reason for these startling results is quite simple: 'structural violence', thus operationalised, is a measure of relative rather than absolute deprivation." The model covertly incorporates an uncompromising egalitarianism which deems the world structurally violent as long as there are states in which the life expectancy is below that of Sweden. It also conflates the distinction between social constraints which may be altered by human action, and environmental constraints, which very often are unchangeable, but may impact significantly on life expectancies. Finally, it embodies a pervasive ethnocentricity, somewhat reminiscent of that which marred the early literature on political development", whereby the aspects of traditional lifestyles which indigenous peoples may wish to preserve, even if they are incompatible with the attainment of a life expectancy like that of the Swedes, are devalued. To the extent that the attempts to operationalise the notion of structural violence tell us anything at all, they tell us merely that some people are poorer than others, and that people in some countries have shorter life expectancies than in others. These are hardly impressive insights, for while poverty and the high infant mortality rates which are the main cause of low average life expectancies are problems of desperate seriousness in many parts of the world, they are also familiar problems which have been receiving attention in all their various dimensions for many years.

The aff is insufficient – the only mandate of the plan is an increase in solar energy assistance – that doesn’t break down the whole neoliberal system – their terminal impacts to the environment are in the context of issues like water pollution – they don’t solve those
The aff can’t break down the entire system – ideologies are entrenched
Jones 11—Owen, Masters at Oxford, named one of the Daily Telegraph's 'Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left' for 2011, author of "Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class", The Independent, UK, "Owen Jones: Protest without politics will change nothing", 2011, www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-protest-without-politics-will-change-nothing-2373612.html
My first experience of police kettling was aged 16. It was May Day 2001, and the anti-globalisation movement was at its peak. The turn-of-the-century anti-capitalist movement feels largely forgotten today, but it was a big deal at the time. To a left-wing teenager growing up in an age of unchallenged neo-liberal triumphalism, just to have "anti-capitalism" flash up in the headlines was thrilling. Thousands of apparently unstoppable protesters chased the world's rulers from IMF to World Bank summits – from Seattle to Prague to Genoa – and the authorities were rattled.¶ Today, as protesters in nearly a thousand cities across the world follow the example set by the Occupy Wall Street protests, it's worth pondering what happened to the anti-globalisation movement. Its activists did not lack passion or determination. But they did lack a coherent alternative to the neo-liberal project. With no clear political direction, the movement was easily swept away by the jingoism and turmoil that followed 9/11, just two months after Genoa.¶ Don't get me wrong: the Occupy movement is a glimmer of sanity amid today's economic madness. By descending on the West's financial epicentres, it reminds us of how a crisis caused by the banks (a sentence that needs to be repeated until it becomes a cliché) has been cynically transformed into a crisis of public spending. The founding statement of Occupy London puts it succinctly: "We refuse to pay for the banks' crisis." The Occupiers direct their fire at the top 1 per cent, and rightly so – as US billionaire Warren Buffett confessed: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."¶ The Occupy movement has provoked fury from senior US Republicans such as Presidential contender Herman Cain who – predictably – labelled it "anti-American". They're right to be worried: those camping outside banks threaten to refocus attention on the real villains, and to act as a catalyst for wider dissent. But a coherent alternative to the tottering global economic order remains, it seems, as distant as ever. Neo-liberalism crashes around, half-dead, with no-one to administer the killer blow.¶ There's always a presumption that a crisis of capitalism is good news for the left. Yet in the Great Depression, fascism consumed much of Europe. The economic crisis of the 1970s did lead to a resurgence of radicalism on both left and right. But, spearheaded by Thatcherism and Reaganism, the New Right definitively crushed its opposition in the 1980s.This time round, there doesn't even seem to be an alternative for the right to defeat. That's not the fault of the protesters. In truth, the left has never recovered from being virtually smothered out of existence. It was the victim of a perfect storm: the rise of the New Right; neo-liberal globalisation; and the repeated defeats suffered by the trade union movement.¶ But, above all, it was the aftermath of the collapse of Communism that did for the left. As US neo-conservative Midge Decter triumphantly put it: "It's time to say: We've won. Goodbye." From the British Labour Party to the African National Congress, left-wing movements across the world hurtled to the right in an almost synchronised fashion. It was as though the left wing of the global political spectrum had been sliced off. That's why, although we live in an age of revolt, there remains no left to give it direction and purpose.
PV models have already been installed in Mexico for electricity and water treatment
King et al 11 (Carey W. King, Research Associate, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, Kelly M. Twomey, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ashlynn S. Stillwell, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Webber Energy Group, and Michael E. Webber, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Director, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy Co-Director, Clean Energy Incubator. 2011, “INVESTING IN RENEWABLE ENERGY THE GEF EXPERIENCE”, Clean Energy and Water: Assessment of Mexico for improved
water services with renewable energy, 09-26-13)

Mexico has enormous solar potential receiving an average of 5 kWh/m2 , and is as high as 7 kWh/m2 in states close to the Pacific reach. The country’s largest solar installations are in San Juanico (Baja California) and Agua Prieta Sonora, although solar technologies are still relatively
nascent in Mexico. In 2006, 839,686 m2 of solar collectors were installed for producing hot water. In the same year, 17.6 MW of photovoltaic modules were installed for rural electrification, communications, and water pumping. By 2013, 25 MW from photovoltaic arrays are expected to be online, which are estimated to produce 14 GWh/yr, or 0.01 of 2009 electricity generation 21. Desalination is a common method of water treatment in BCS. A total of 67 systems are in operation, both state-managed and private, with 13 more under construction. Many private sector facilities exist to serve tourist populations. Of the 67 operating systems, 54 desalinate brackish water and 13 desalinate seawater using mostly reverse osmosis technology (four use multi-stage flash) with all systems using conventional sources of power. Sizes range from 2-1,998 m3/d treatment capacity, totaling 16,971 m3/d of installed capacity statewide. The desalination plant under construction in Cabo San Lucas will have a capacity of 17,280 m3/d51.Despite the current reliance on conventional sources of power, some desalination facilities have worked to harness solar power. The first efforts to integrate solar power and desalination focused primarily on thermal desalination, with past projects in Puerto Chale in the 1970s, La Paz and Las Barrancas in 1980, and El Pardito in 1993. Current solar desalination projects utilize reverse osmosis technology, using solar PV arrays with battery banks to treat seawater. These current solar desalination installations can produce 19 m3/d 51. Reported benefits of solar desalination in BCS include providing electricity and clean water to communities without access to electricity or primary fuel resources or water networks. Economics, reverse osmosis membrane maintenance, energy recovery, and energy storage are concerns that limit
implementation and performance of solar desalination systems 51.

Political engagement in potentially flawed discourses is paramount – refusal to directly engage admittedly corrupt politics mirrors the practice of German leftists in the 1930’s – a practice that led directly to the rise of Hitler

Wallace in ’96  (William, Prof. – London School of Economics, Review of International Studies, "Truth and Power, Monks and Technocrats: Theory and Practice in International Relations", 22:3, p. 307-309)
But if we cling to our intellectual chastity and reject such compromised vehicles of communication, we are unlikely to reach much of an audience. It is wonderfully ambitious to proclaim that `world politics is the new metaphysics, a global moral science' through which we will `reinvent the future ... freeing people, as individuals and groups, from the social, physical, economic, political and other constraints which stop them carrying out what they would freely choose to do'. 24 It falls far short of that ambition to communicate with the people of the world primarily through Millennium or the Review of International Studies, or even through the university lecture hall and tutorial. Sectarianism-to switch from a Catholic to a Protestant metaphor-is a besetting sin of academic life, each exclusive group selfrighteously insisting that it has discovered the path to truth and salvation. 25 Ken Booth's concluding chapter to International Relations Theory Today has all the power and passion of an evangelical sermon, reminding its sinful readers that `the enemy is us ', calling on us to repent of our consumerist culture of contentment and to ` ask the victims of world politics to reinvent the future ' . 26 The discourse of postmodernist and critical theorists tells us much about their own self-closure to the world of policy. `Dissidence' and `resistance' are powerful words, implying that the writers live in truth (as Havel put it) in a political system based upon lies; drawing a deliberate parallel with the dissidents of socialist central Europe, as if these Western `dissidents' had also to gather secretly in cramped apartments to hear a lecturer smuggled in from the free universities on the `other' side-Noam Chomsky, perhaps, or Edward Said, slipping into authoritarian whom so many of our younger generation yearn'-though Max Weber, who went on to warn that `academic prophecy ... will create only fanatical sects but never a genuine community', was referring to a much earlier rising generation. 28 The terminology of dissidence and exile is drawn from the post-Vietnam image of an authoritarian and capitalist America, in which hegemonic Harvard professors suppress the views-and stunt the careers-of those who do not share their positivist doctrines. There is a tendency within American political science towards orthodoxy, with professors from leading departments (like Dominicans) hounding heretics off the tenure track. 29 Banishment to a second-class university, or even to Canada, is not however quite of the same order as the treatment of intellectuals in post-1968 Czechoslovakia, to which we are invited to compare their situation; the victims of positivist hegemony do not risk arrest, may even continue to teach, to publish and to travel. 30 And it would be hard to argue that any comparable orthodoxy stunts the careers of promising academics in Britain, or elsewhere in Western Europe. The failure of the Weimar Republic to establish its legitimacy owed something to the irresponsibility of intellectuals of the right and left, preferring the private certainties of their ideological schools to critical engagement with the difficult compromises of democratic politics. The Frankfurt School of Adorno and Marcuse were Salonbolschewisten, `relentless in their hostility towards the capitalist system' while `they never abandoned the lifestyle of the haute bourgeoisie ' . 31 The followers of Nietzsche on the right and those of Marx on the left both worked to denigrate the limited achievements and the political compromises of Weimar, encouraging their students to adopt their own radically critical positions and so contribute to undermining the republic. Karl Mannheim, who had attempted in Ideology and Utopia to build on Weber's conditional and contingent sociology of knowledge, was among the first professors dismissed when the Nazis came to power. Intellectuals who live within relatively open civil societies have a responsibility to the society within which they live: to act themselves as constructive critics, and to encourage their students to contribute to the strengthening of civil society rather than to undermine it.32

Increasing awareness of complexity doesn’t change it – complexity theory only proves they can’t access any linear internal links and you vote neg on presumption
Their Authors Ramalingam and Jones 08  (Ben Ramalingam, Research Associate and Harry Jones, Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute, Working Paper 285, “Exploring the science of complexity: Ideas and implications for development and humanitarian efforts,” October, 2008, p. 63-64, http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/833.pdf)

There are a number of problems and pitfalls facing the application of complexity to public sector efforts, specifically within the international aid sector. These are not insurmountable. It is worth revisiting the three contrasting perspectives outlined in Chapter 2, presented in Figure 13 below. We have tried to be keenly aware of these different approaches and not to overextend the potential applications of complexity. This requires careful and considered application of the concepts of complexity to international aid. While this may limit the immediate applicability of complexity, it does not detract from its potential power. Importantly, a growing number of applications have tried to take serious account of the (sometimes strident) objections that have been made to the application of complexity to socioeconomic phenomena. While our reference to the original science has made us highly sensitive to the careless application of all of these concepts to social sciences, enough serious thinkers are engaging with these issues to give cause for comfort. However, if in attempting to use the principles of complexity science in international development and humanitarian efforts it is found that certain aspects of a particular phenomenon can be appropriately characterised using a complexity concept, this does not mean that this aspect is in some way the most important feature, or that increasing awareness of this factor is automatically a valuable or useful thing. The fact that complexity can offer new ways of looking at aspects of development problems and a focus on different sorts of features and processes in no way suggests that these features will be the crucial aspect of some problem. For example, the concept of a complex system shows that there are new possibilities regarding the way that things behave and change over time. This does not mean that any one particular phenomenon is best explained using the concepts of complexity. Some writers appear disinclined to address the issue of whether it is appropriate to apply a concept to a situation. Where this occurs, the reading at best is that their reference to complexity is as a metaphor, thereby at most suggesting interesting potential relationships between factors and elements being described. Building on the previous issue, if some phenomena can be properly characterised and described using complexity science, and are seen to be crucial features of a situation, this does not necessarily mean that a particular action should automatically follow. Theoretical understanding of complexity is at an early stage and, from some perspectives, there may not appear to be a great deal of prescriptive power within the key concepts. This issue is frequently come across. For example, some writers use complexity to advocate endlessly increasing actors’ connections with each other, or to suggest that allowing self-organisation will unquestionably lead to better results or that organisational strategy is best left as something that ‘emerges’, i.e., is unplanned.
Complexity theory leads to paralysis
Hendrick 9 (Diane; Department of Peace Studies – University of Bradford, “Complexity Theory and Conflict Transformation: An Exploration of Potential and Implications,” June, http://143.53.238.22/acad/confres/papers/pdfs/CCR17.pdf)
It is still relatively early days in the application of complexity theory to social sciences and there are doubts and criticisms, either about the applicability of the ideas or about the expectations generated for them. It is true that the translation of terms from natural science to social science is sometimes contested due to the significant differences in these domains, and that there are concerns that the meanings of terms may be distorted, thus making their use arbitrary or even misleading. Developing new, relevant definitions for the new domain applications, where the terms indicate a new idea or a new synthesis that takes our understanding forward, are required. In some cases, particular aspects of complexity theory are seen as of only limited applicability, for example, self-organisation (see Rosenau‘s argument above that it is only relevant in systems in which authority does not play a role). There are those who argue that much that is being touted as new is actually already known, whether from systems theory or from experience, and so complexity theory cannot be seen as adding value in that way. There are also concerns that the theory has not been worked out in sufficient detail, or with sufficient rigour, to make itself useful yet. Even that it encourages woolly thinking and imprecision.
In terms of application in the field, it could be argued that it may lead to paralysis, in fear of all the unexpected things that could happen, and all the unintended consequences that could result, from a particular intervention. The proposed adaptability and sensitivity to emerging new situations may lead to difficulties in planning or, better expressed, must lead to a different conception of what constitutes planning, which is, in itself, challenging (or even threatening) for many fields. The criteria for funding projects or research may not fit comfortably with a complexity approach, and evaluation, already difficult especially in the field of conflict transformation, would require a re-conceptualisation. Pressure for results could act as a disincentive to change project design in the light of emergent processes. There may be the desire to maintain the illusion of control in order to retain the confidence of funders. On the other hand, there are fears that complexity may be used as an excuse for poor planning, and implementation, which is a valid concern for funders. In addition, there may be scepticism that the co-operation and co-ordination between different researchers or interveners, (let alone transdisciplinary undertakings) appropriate to working on complex problem domains, will not work due to differing mental models, competing interests and aims, competition for funding, prestige, etc. Such attempts appear, therefore, unrealistic or unfeasible. 

Even if the world is complex that’s not a reason our internal links are false – phenomena can still be modeled and understood
OECD Global Science Forum 09 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Science Forum, Leading Forum on Complexity Science, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) groups thirty Member countries committed to democratic government and the market economy, and provides a venue where governments can compare and exchange policy experiences, identify good practices and agree on decisions and action recommendations, “Applications of Complexity Science for Public Policy,” OECD, September, 2009, http://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/43891980.pdf, Accessed 2-9-14 –ZS

Rationale and Goals In today’s challenging policy environment, government officials and other decision-makers are confronting daunting problems whose common feature is their complexity. That is, the problems involve large numbers of diverse interacting parts that produce behaviours that cannot be obviously derived from knowledge of their constituents. Examples include highly diverse, mobile human populations that can rapidly spread disease so as to yield pandemics; interactions of social, economic and political assets so as to yield communities that are either highly vulnerable to or resilient to disasters; sensitive political and economic systems that respond in complex ways to climate change; financial systems that exhibit instability when perturbed; and power or communications networks subject to unexpected, cascading malfunctions. Successful policy design depends on the ability to understand and predict the complex behaviours of such systems in order to design more effective governmental programmes, regulations, treaties, and infrastructures. As we come to understand how human actions can trigger bad dynamics in complex environments and societies, anticipating the consequences of policy choices becomes ever more important and more difficult. Scientists from many different disciplines have been working for decades to extend their analytical and predictive abilities into the realm of complex phenomena. This quest has given birth to a new and exciting domain of research called complexity science. By developing sophisticated analytical and computational tools, scientists have discovered that, in many cases, very complex phenomena can be modelled and understood. Some of the principles and laws that have been discovered have a gratifying degree of universality, allowing them to be applied to large classes of complex systems, even ones that are seemingly unrelated. Recent advances in computational technologies are enabling a larger number and greater variety of scientists to conduct work on complex systems problems. Given the accumulating scientific accomplishments of complexity scientists, the question naturally arises: How can the insights and methods of complexity science be applied to assist policy makers as they tackle difficult problems in policy areas such as health, environmental protection, economics, energy security, or public safety? To address this question, the OECD workshop will bring together scientists, policymakers and science programme managers to explore the extent to which complexity science can be useful to decision-makers today, and how its utility could be further enhanced by strengthening the research enterprise and promoting international cooperation. The potential benefits to policymakers are reflected in the subtitle of the workshop: by applying the results of research to natural and human systems it may be possible to avoid unanticipated consequences of contemplated policy actions; through better appreciation and forecasting, it may be possible to undertake prudent interventions to avert unexpected negative developments, or to recognize opportunities for timely positive steps. A concise report conveying key findings about the promise of complexity sciences for policymakers and the needs of the research community will be produced and shared. 

Policymakers have an obligation to err in favor of prediction—it’s inevitable and using explicit predictions enhances decision-making
Fitzsimmons 7 (Michael, Washington DC defense analyst, “The Problem of Uncertainty in Strategic Planning”, Survival, Winter 06-07, online)
In defence of prediction ¶ Uncertainty is not a new phenomenon for strategists. Clausewitz knew that ‘many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain’. In coping with uncertainty, he believed that ‘what one can reasonably ask of an officer is that he should possess a standard of judgment, which he can gain only from knowledge of men and affairs and from common sense. He should be guided by the laws of probability.’34 Granted, one can certainly allow for epistemological debates about the best ways of gaining ‘a standard of judgment’ from ‘knowledge of men and affairs and from common sense’. Scientific inquiry into the ‘laws of probability’ for any given strate- gic question may not always be possible or appropriate. Certainly, analysis cannot and should not be presumed to trump the intuition of decision-makers. Nevertheless, Clausewitz’s implication seems to be that the burden of proof in any debates about planning should belong to the decision-maker who rejects formal analysis, standards of evidence and probabilistic reasoning. Ultimately, though, the value of prediction in strategic planning does not rest primarily in getting the correct answer, or even in the more feasible objective of bounding the range of correct answers. Rather, prediction requires decision- makers to expose, not only to others but to themselves, the beliefs they hold regarding why a given event is likely or unlikely and why it would be impor- tant or unimportant. Richard Neustadt and Ernest May highlight this useful property of probabilistic reasoning in their renowned study of the use of history in decision-making, Thinking in Time. In discussing the importance of probing presumptions, they contend: The need is for tests prompting questions, for sharp, straightforward mechanisms the decision makers and their aides might readily recall and use to dig into their own and each others’ presumptions. And they need tests that get at basics somewhat by indirection, not by frontal inquiry: not ‘what is your inferred causation, General?’ Above all, not, ‘what are your values, Mr. Secretary?’ ... If someone says ‘a fair chance’ ... ask, ‘if you were a betting man or woman, what odds would you put on that?’ If others are present, ask the same of each, and of yourself, too. Then probe the differences: why? This is tantamount to seeking and then arguing assumptions underlying different numbers placed on a subjective probability assessment. We know of no better way to force clarification of meanings while exposing hidden differences ... Once differing odds have been quoted, the question ‘why?’ can follow any number of tracks. Argument may pit common sense against common sense or analogy against analogy. What is important is that the expert’s basis for linking ‘if’ with ‘then’ gets exposed to the hearing of other experts before the lay official has to say yes or no.’35 There are at least three critical and related benefits of prediction in strate- gic planning. The first reflects Neustadt and May’s point – prediction enforces a certain level of discipline in making explicit the assumptions, key variables and implied causal relationships that constitute decision-makers’ beliefs and that might otherwise remain implicit. Imagine, for example, if Shinseki and Wolfowitz had been made to assign probabilities to their opposing expectations regarding post-war Iraq. Not only would they have had to work harder to justify their views, they might have seen more clearly the substantial chance that they were wrong and had to make greater efforts in their planning to prepare for that contingency. Secondly, the very process of making the relevant factors of a deci- sion explicit provides a firm, or at least transparent, basis for making choices. Alternative courses of action can be compared and assessed in like terms. Third, the transparency and discipline of the process of arriving at the initial strategy should heighten the decision-maker’s sensitivity toward changes in the envi- ronment that would suggest the need for adjustments to that strategy. In this way, prediction enhances rather than under-mines strategic flexibility. This defence of prediction does not imply that great stakes should be gambled on narrow, singular predictions of the future. On the contrary, the central problem of uncertainty in plan- ning remains that any given prediction may simply be wrong. Preparations for those eventualities must be made. Indeed, in many cases, relatively unlikely outcomes could be enormously consequential, and therefore merit extensive preparation and investment. In order to navigate this complexity, strategists must return to the dis- tinction between uncertainty and risk. While the complexity of the international security environment may make it somewhat resistant to the type of probabilis- tic thinking associated with risk, a risk-oriented approach seems to be the only viable model for national-security strategic planning. The alternative approach, which categorically denies prediction, precludes strategy. As Betts argues, Any assumption that some knowledge, whether intuitive or explicitly formalized, provides guidance about what should be done is a presumption that there is reason to believe the choice will produce a satisfactory outcome – that is, it is a prediction, however rough it may be. If there is no hope of discerning and manipulating causes to produce intended effects, analysts as well as politicians and generals should all quit and go fishing.36 Unless they are willing to quit and go fishing, then, strategists must sharpen their tools of risk assessment. Risk assessment comes in many varieties, but identification of two key parameters is common to all of them: the consequences of a harmful event or condition; and the likelihood of that harmful event or condition occurring. With no perspective on likelihood, a strategist can have no firm perspective on risk. With no firm perspective on risk, strategists cannot purposefully discriminate among alternative choices. Without purposeful choice, there is no strategy. * * * One of the most widely read books in recent years on the complicated relation- ship between strategy and uncertainty is Peter Schwartz’s work on scenario-based planning, The Art of the Long View. Schwartz warns against the hazards faced by leaders who have deterministic habits of mind, or who deny the difficult implications of uncertainty for strategic planning. To overcome such tenden- cies, he advocates the use of alternative future scenarios for the purposes of examining alternative strategies. His view of scenarios is that their goal is not to predict the future, but to sensitise leaders to the highly contingent nature of their decision-making.37 This philosophy has taken root in the strategic-planning processes in the Pentagon and other parts of the US government, and properly so. Examination of alternative futures and the potential effects of surprise on current plans is essential. Appreciation of uncertainty also has a number of organisational impli- cations, many of which the national-security establishment is trying to take to heart, such as encouraging multidisciplinary study and training, enhancing information sharing, rewarding innovation, and placing a premium on speed and versatility. The arguments advanced here seek to take nothing away from these imperatives of planning and operating in an uncertain environment. But appreciation of uncertainty carries hazards of its own. Questioning assumptions is critical, but assumptions must be made in the end. Clausewitz’s ‘standard of judgment’ for discriminating among alternatives must be applied. Creative, unbounded speculation must resolve to choice or else there will be no strategy. Recent history suggests that unchecked scepticism regarding the validity of prediction can marginalise analysis, trade significant cost for ambiguous benefit, empower parochial interests in decision-making, and undermine flexibility. Accordingly, having fully recognised the need to broaden their strategic-planning aperture, national-security policymakers would do well now to reinvigorate their efforts in the messy but indispensable business of predicting the future. 

Scalar Ptx
National and International Model based approaches are useful in the context of energy politics
Craig 2 – (Paul, Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, “What Can History Teach Us? A Retrospective Examination of Long-Term Energy Forecasts for the United States,” Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 2002. 27:83–118)

The applicable measure of success here is the degree to which the forecast can prompt learning and induce desired changes in behavior. The Limits to Growth model (discussed below) has been widely used to help students understand the counterintuitive nature of dynamical systems (11). Simulations and role-playing games have also been used to teach executives in the utility industry how new markets for SO2 emissions permits or electric power might behave. Experience with exercising these types of models can improve intuition for the behavior of complex systems (12–14). 2.4. Use 4: In Automatic Management Systems Whose Ef?cacy Does Not Require the Model to be a True Representation Hodges and Dewar use the example of the Kalman ?lter, which can be used to control (for example) the traf?c on freeway on-ramps. These ?lters can model traf?c ?ow, but only in a stochastic representation that does not pretend to be exact and validated, just useful. Similar ?lters can also be embedded in management systems controlling power systems or factory processes. As long as the model cost-effectively controls the process in question, the issue of whether it is an exact representation of reality is not of concern. Neural networks fall into this category (15). 2.5. Use 5: As Aids in Communication and Education By forcing analysts to discuss data and analysis results in a systematic way, forecasting models can facilitate communication between various stakeholders AMRKING. The measure of success for this use is the degree to which the model improves understanding and communication, both for individuals and between groups with different mindsets and vocabularies. For example, the population of a developing country at some future time might depend on childhood survival rates, longevity, female literacy, af?uence, income distribution, health care, and nutrition. Modeling these in?uences could permit better understanding of interlinkages between them and improve communication between expert groups with diverse backgrounds. Such a model could inform, for instance, a government’s long-term plans. Another example is the U.S. DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook forecast (16). This widely used forecast, based on the EIA’s latest analysis of the current data and industry expectations, provides a baselinethat others can and do use for their own explorations of the future. When a problem is being analyzed, word leaks out and leads to suggestions, ideas, and information from outside parties. This can add to the analysis directly, or stimulate helpful complementary work by others. A politician facing a thorny problem might commission a study to locate knowledgeable people. Thus, studies can identify talent as a by-product. The National Academy of Sciences Committee on Nuclear and Alternative Energy Systems (CONAES) study, one of those assessed in the DOE review of forecasts from the 1970s (Figure 1) (5), was directly or indirectly responsible for many career shifts. The American Physical Society “Princeton Study” held during the summer of 1973 was explicitly designed with this intent (17). The oil embargos of the 1970s had led many physicists to think about making career shifts. The study gave them an opportunity to learn about energy issues, to meet and get to know experts, and to ?nd jobs. 2.6. Use 6: To Understand the Bounds or Limits on the Range of Possible Outcomes Models can enhance con?dence through limiting or bounding cases. The Princeton Study referred to in Use 5 includes many examples (17). This study emphasized energy ef?ciency, with a focus on physical constraints to energy use. The cornerstone of the analysis was the concept of fundamental physical limits such as the ?rst and second laws of thermodynamics. This work showed that great potential existed for improving ef?ciency by engineering change. Energy ef?ciency became a major theme of energy policy and remains so to this day. 2.7. Use 7: As Aids to Thinking and Hypothesizing Forecasts can help people and institutions think through the consequences of their actions. Researchers often begin their exercises with baseline or “business-asusual” forecasts, which attempt to predict how the world will evolve assuming current trends continue. Alternative forecasts are then created to assess the potential effects of changes in key factors on the results. For example, an economic forecaster might use such an analysis to assess the likely effects of a change in property taxes on economic growth in a particular state. Computer forecasting is an excellent tool to teach people the dynamics of complex systems (12, 13). The behavior of these systems is often counterintuitive, so such forecasting games can help people learn to manage them better. For example, systems dynamics models (described below) were used in the 1960s to explain why building premium housing in urban areas can under some plausible circumstances accelerate, rather than slow, migration to suburbs (14, p. 5)2. Some forecasts are generated as part of scenario exploration exercises, which can be helpful any time a person or institution faces a critical choice. Oil companies, for example, are well aware that at some point the transportation sector may have to switch to some other fuel. Even though this switch may be a long time in the future, the prospect needs to be part of current contingency planning. Considering a wide range of scenarios can help institutions prepare for the many different ways the future can evolve. Institutions use forecasts to allocate physical and personnel resources. Some businesses have massive infrastructures with long time constants and ?nd it useful to forecast over decades (18).

1) Consequences outweigh intent:
a) The aff’s moral stance is the stance of the Crusades; it would justify global intervention no matter the cost and increase global violence --- ignoring consequences justifies the existence of the 1ac harm—in other words, you could say you have a moral obligation to stamp out terrorism, and ignore the consequences of loss of liberty

b) Moral values can’t be given meaning without looking to consequences—they can’t say that something is immoral without first assessing both the action and the impact

c) This moral tunnel vision is complicit with the evil they criticize
Issac 2, professor of political science at Indiana University, 2002 (Jeffrey, Dissent, Spring, ebsco)

As writers such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Max Weber, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hannah Arendt have taught, an unyielding concern with moral goodness undercuts political responsibility. The concern may be morally laudable, reflecting a kind of personal integrity, but it suffers from three fatal flaws: (1) It fails to see that the purity of one’s intention does not ensure the achievement of what one intends. Abjuring violence or refusing to make common cause with morally compromised parties may seem like the right thing; but if such tactics entail impotence, then it is hard to view them as serving any moral good beyond the clean conscienceMARK of their supporters; (2) it fails to see that in a world of real violence and injustice, moral purity is not simply a form of powerlessness; it is often a form of complicity in injustice. This is why, from the standpoint of politics—as opposed to religion—pacifism is always a potentially immoral stand. In categorically repudiating violence, it refuses in principle to oppose certain violent injustices with any effect; and (3) it fails to see that politics is as much about unintended consequences as it is about intentions; it is the effects of action, rather than the motives of action, that is most significant. Just as the alignment with “good” may engender impotence, it is often the pursuit of “good” that generates evil. This is the lesson of communism in the twentieth century: it is not enough that one’s goals be sincere or idealistic; it is equally important, always, to ask about the effects of pursuing these goals and to judge these effects in pragmatic and historically contextualized ways. Moral absolutism inhibits this judgment. It alienates those who are not true believers. It promotes arrogance. And it undermines political effectiveness. 

2) Their claims are fundamentally utilitarian
Hardin and Mearsheimer 85 Russell, John, Professors of Political Science, University of Chicago, ETHICS, April 1985, p.418. 

Discussion among philosophers often stops at the point of fundamental disagreement over moral principles, just as discussion among strategists often stops at the point of disagreement over hypothetical assertions about deterrence. But most moral theorists -- and all utilitarians -- also require consideration of hypothetical assertions to reach their conclusions, although they are typically even less adept at objective, causal argument than are strategists, who are themselves often quite casual with their social scientific claims. Even if one wishes to argue principally from deontological principles, one must have some confidence in one's social scientific expectations to decide whether consequences might not in this instance be overriding. Only a deontologist who held the extraordinary position that consequences never matter could easily reach a conclusion on nuclear weapons without considering the quality of various outcomes. Alas, on this dreadful issue good causal arguments are desperately needed.

3) As policy makers in a nuclear world we have to weigh consequences and accept sacrifice of innocents to save the world
Bok 88 (Sissela Bok, Professor of Philosophy, Brandeis, Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory, Ed. David Rosenthal and Fudlou Shehadi, 1988)

The same argument can be made for Kant’s other formulations of the Categorical Imperative: “So act as to use humanity, both in your own person and in the person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never simply as a means”; and “So act as if you were always through actions a law-making member in a universal Kingdom of Ends.” No one with a concern for humanity could consistently will to risk eliminating humanity in the person of himself and every other or to risk the death of all members in a universal Kingdom of Ends for the sake of justice.  To risk their collective death for the sake of following one’s conscience would be, as Rawls said, “irrational, crazy.”  And to say that one did not intend such a catastrophe, but that one merely failed to stop other persons from bringing it about would be beside the point when the end of the world was at stake.  For although it is true that we cannot be held responsible for most of the wrongs that others commit, the Latin maxim presents a case where we would have to take such a responsibility seriously—perhaps to the point of deceiving, bribing, even killing an innocent person, in order that the world not perish.

The only ethical framework that respects rationality is consequentialism
Cummiskey 96 (Cummiskey, David, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bates College, Kantian Consequentialism, The University of Chicago Press, JSTOR, 1996, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2381810)

In such a situation, what would a conscientious Kantian agent, an agent motivated by the unconditional value of rational beings, choose? We have a duty to promote the conditions necessary for the existence of rational beings, but both choosing to act and choosing not to act will cost the life of a rational being. Since the basis of Kant’s principle is “rational nature exists as an end-in-itself' (GMM, p. 429), the reasonable solution to such a dilemma involves promoting, insofar as one can, the conditions necessary for rational beings. If I sacrifice some for the sake of other rational beings, l do not use them arbitrarily and I do not deny the unconditional value of rational beings. Persons may have "dignity, an unconditional and incomparable value” that transcends any market value (GMM, p. 486), but, as rational beings, persons also have a fundamental equality which dictates that some must sometimes give way for the sake of others. The formula of the end-in-itself thus does not support the view that we may never force another to bear some cost in order to benefit others. lf one focuses on the equal value of all rational beings, then equal consideration dictates that one sacrifice some to save many

By regarding all humans as equal only util provides all rational beings their unconditional value and respects that rationality
Cummiskey 96 (Cummiskey, David, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bates College, Kantian Consequentialism, The University of Chicago Press, JSTOR, 1996, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2381810)

According to Kant, the objective end of moral action is the existence of rational beings. Respect for rational beings requires that, in deciding what to do, one give appropriate practical consideration to the uncon- ditional value of rational beings and to the conditional value of happiness. Since agent-centered constraints require a non-value-based rationale, the most natural interpretation of the demand markthat one give equal respect to all rational beings lead to a consequentialist normative theory. We have seen that there is no sound Kantian reason for abandoning this natural consequentialist interpretation. In particular, a consequentialist interpretation does not require sac- rifices which a Kantian ought to consider unreasonable, and it does not involve doing evil so that good may come of it. It simply requires an uncompromising commitment to the equal value and equal claims of all rational beings and a recognition that, in the moral consideration of conduct, one's own subjective concerns do not have overriding importance. Contemporary neo-Kantians, however, will probably remain confident

Tournament: Lakeland | Round: 6 | Opponent: Weston CL | Judge: Mingching Kam
CP
The United States federal government should establish a bilateral partnership with the government of Mexico against human trafficking if, and only if, Mexico agrees to substantially improve legal protection and rights afforded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer individuals.  
Starting with Mexico is key and they’ll say yes
Corrales, ‘9 – Corrales is visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and associate professor of political science at Amherst College. Gays in Latin America: Is the Closet Half Empty? http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/17/gays_in_latin_america_is_the_closet_half_empty//SC
Most analysts haven't noticed, but a major social revolution is taking place in Latin
AND
America -- at least legally and in urban centers -- is coming out.
They can’t generate any offense – it’s not just a gender struggle
Ditmore, Maternick, and Zapert 12 (Melissa, Anna, and Katherine, all are research consultants to the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, “The Road North: The role of gender, poverty and violence in trafficking from Mexico to the US”, August 2012, pg. 22-25 http://www.ccasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Road-North-The-role-of-gender-poverty-and-violence-in-trafficking-from-Mexico-to-the-US.pdf , SG) 

Violence against women and cultural beliefs and state systems that support it exist in greater
AND
maintain a hold over the victim (Castro Soto et al. 2004).
That makes them heteronormative
Bacon 98, Jen Bacon, Department of Language, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, 1998, World Englishes, Volume 17, No. 2, p. 256,

I am not arguing against all forms of closure—but rather for an awareness
AND
that we might use other standards to assess the usefulness of rhetorical acts.
That turns patriarchy
Yep, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Professor of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, 05 (Gust A. Yep, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Professor of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University where he teaches courses on communication, culture, gender, sexuality, and health; communication and masculinities; interpersonal communication; and, rhetoric of the media, 2005, “Heteronormativity,” Youth, Education, and Sexualities, http://books.google.com/ books?id=Q4MpSehmiFUCanddq=heteronormativity+erasureandsource=gbs_navlinks_s)

Heteronormativity affects everyone, but in different ways and to different de- grees.
AND
” or “faggot”–an ever-present threat to their manhood.

T
Interpretation – Economic engagement is exclusively economic
Jakštait? 10 (Gerda, Doctoral Candidate Vytautas Magnus University Faculty of Political Sciences and Diplomacy (Lithuania), “CONTAINMENT AND ENGAGEMENT AS MIDDLE-RANGE THEORIES,” December 10, 2010, BALTIC JOURNAL OF LAW and POLITICS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2 (2010), http://versita.metapress.com/content/0w3157n438689417/fulltext.pdf)

The approach to engagement as economic engagement focuses exclusively on economic instruments of foreign policy
AND
ensure safety in particular, whereas economic benefit is not a priority objective.
That means only tangible trade and financial benefits
Haass and O’Sullivan 2k (Richard N. Haass, Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, former senior aide to President George Bush, and Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Fellow with the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, 2000, “Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy,” http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/articles/2000/6/summer20haass/2000survival.pdf, p. 5-6)

Architects of engagement strategies have a wide variety of incentives from which to choose.
AND
a framework to guide the use of engagement strategies in the upcoming decades.
The plan isn’t topical – Human rights
Rose and Spiegel 8 (Andrew K. Rose and Mark M. Spiegel, Non-Economic Engagement and International Exchange The Case of Environmental Treaties, July 17, 2008, http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/arose/RepRev.pdf, BG)
Countries, like people, interact with each other on a number of different dimensions
AND
relations. The answer, in both theory and practice, is positive.      
Voting Issue:

1. Limits – breaking away from “economic” means that any type of interaction toward another country becomes topical – makes negative research impossible
   2. Ground – the aff denies access to key DA links by changing the ground from economics – kills fairness and economic education

DA
Legislation will pass in 120 days – only time frame of bidding is ambiguous
Business Day 2/5 (Editor, News Source, 2/5/14, “Post-energy reform: Mexico signs first oil deal with Russia”, http://businessdayonline.com/2014/02/post-energy-reform-mexico-signs-first-oil-deal-with-russia/)

Mexico’s Congress is currently de¬bating and drafting secondary laws to implement a sweeping
AND
in the Gulf of Mexico are Shell, Exxon, Repsol and Petrobras.

Plan causes massive opposition – engagement with the US is an insurmountable obstacle which tanks Nieto’s cred and throws Mexico’s congress into chaos
Starr 12 - Director, U.S.-Mexico Network Associate Professor (NTT) University Fellow, Center on Public Diplomacy University of Southern California (Pamela, “U.S.-Mexico Relations and Mexican Domestic Politics”, October 6 of 2012, https://www.google.com/url?sa=tandrct=jandq=andesrc=sandsource=webandcd=3andcad=rjaandved=0CD4QFjACandurl=http3A2F2Fcollege.usc.edu2Fusmexnet2Fwp-content2Fuploads2F20102F102FCamp-Oxford-paper-final.docandei=mTLYUZTDMbOLyQGT14GwCQandusg=AFQjCNH_cqiYTQRo7SFmpfWugH9ABshhCgandsig2=_M2KmLNnt3e8v4vVshc_fQ)
The final implication of Mexican nationalism for U.S.-Mexico relations is the
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being too willing to accept support and guidance from north of the border.
Reform is key to the Mexican economy and oil industry
Althaus 8/13 (Dudley – Senior writer at Global Post, “The great Mexican gamble: Can Big Oil save the country’s economy?”, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/130813/mexico-energy-reform-pemex-oil-gas-electricity   |ak2)

President Enrique Peña Nieto on Monday called for constitutional changes to open Mexico's moribund petroleum
AND
Enrique Ochoa, a deputy energy minister, explained to foreign reporters Monday.
Mexico is key to the US economy – exports and border states
Ducheny 10/11/12 (Denise Moreno Ducheny, a former state senator, is senior analyst, Trans-Border Institute, University of San Diego, “Mexico plays role in U.S. economic growth” http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/Oct/11/mexico-plays-role-in-us-economic-growth/)

A study published earlier this year by NACTS and D.C.-based New
AND
. We now need to translate that economic power into effective public policy.
Nuclear war
Harris and Burrows 9 Mathew, PhD European History @ Cambridge, counselor of the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Jennifer, member of the NIC’s Long Range Analysis Unit “Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical Effects of the Financial Crisis” http://www.ciaonet.org/journals/twq/v32i2/f_0016178_13952.pdf

Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and indeed believes the future is
AND
within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world. 

K
The 1ac’s econo-centric approach forces a DEVELOPMENTAL approach to anti-trafficking – crowds out PRODUCTIVE policies because of the over-emphasis on poverty
Molland 12 – PhD in Anthropology, Lecturer in Anthropology (Development Studies) @ ANU
(Sverre, “The Inexorable Quest for Trafficking Hotspots along the Thai-Lao Border,” in Labor Migration and Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives, p. 60-62)BB

As human trafficking is defined retrospectively, since trafficking is manifest only when a migrant
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I luijsmans 2007), or why some end up in exploitive situations.
Neoliberalism specifically in Latin America exacerbates inequality and justifies endless intervention — causes extinction – moral obligation to put those oppressed by the West at the center of decision making
Makwana 6 (Rajesh, STWR, 23rd November 06, http://www.stwr.org/globalization/neoliberalism-and-economic-globalization.html, ZBurdette)

Neoliberalism and Economic GlobalizationThe goal of neoliberal economic globalization is the removal of all barriers
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of the poorest people to afford market prices, are both likely causes.

Vote negative to endorse a world of Mexican labor sovereignty in the face of the neoliberal globalization of North American trade
Otero 11 (Gerardo, department of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, Journal of Poverty, 15:384 – 402, October 17, 2011, “Neoliberal Globalization, NAFTA, and Migration: Mexico’s Loss of Food and Labor Sovereignty,” http://www.sfu.ca/~otero/docs/JoP-Otero-NAFTA-MIGRATION.pdf, alp)

An alternative policy conclusion could be as follows: if the dismal conditions in rural
AND
that could alter dominant trends in the world economy from the bottom up.

Tournament: Pennsbury | Round: 4 | Opponent: NFA HM | Judge: Mike McCabe
T

A. Interpretation – Removing sanctions is a form of appeasement
Stern 6 (Martin, University of Maryland Graduate, Debunking detente, 11/27/06, http://www.diamondbackonline.com/article_56223e79-7009-56a3-8afe-5d08bfff6e08.html)

Appeasement is defined as "granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace." Giving Iran international legitimacy and removing sanctions would have maintained peace with a potential enemy without changing the undemocratic practices of the enemy. If this isn't appeasement, I don't know how better to define the word.

Engagement and appeasement are distinct
Resnick 1 (Evan, Assistant Professor and coordinator of the United States Programme at RSIS, “Defining Engagement,” Journal of International Affairs, 0022197X, Spring2001, Vol. 54, Issue 2, http://web.ebscohost.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/ehost/detail?sid=1b56e6b4-ade2-4052-9114-7d107fdbd01940sessionmgr12andvid=2andhid=24andbdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ3d3d#db=mthandAN=4437301)

Thus, a rigid conceptual distinction can be drawn between engagement and appeasement. Whereas
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or in exchange for certain concessions on the part of the target state.

B. Violation – they remove restrictions – that’s appeasement
C. Voting issue

1. Limits – infinite amount of restrictions the aff can remove – explodes neg research burden
   2. Ground – Lose spending links based off of increases in funding

Alan Gross QPQ
Text: The United States federal government should end its embargo against Cuba if and only if the Republic of Cuba agrees to release Alan Gross.
CP solves – Cuba will say yes if economic engagement is conditioned on Gross’s release
Piccone 12 (Ted, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Foreign Policy @ The Brookings Institution, Richard Feinberg,
nonresident Senior Fellow @ The Brookings Institution, Diego Ruiz, Member of delegation of business leaders to Cuba organized by the Council of the Americas, Inc.http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/events/2012/12/1020cuba/20121210_cuban_economy.pdf)

Thank you. Back to the stalemate in which we now find¶ ourselves with
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facilitate economic relations between the two, if would¶ seem to me.

Gross is key to relations – empirics and congressional statements
Sullivan 13 (Mark, specialist in Latin American Affairs from the Congressional Research Service, 6/2/13, “Cuba: U.S. Policy and Issues for the 113th Congress,” http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43024.pdf)

Relations took a turn for the worse in December 2009, however, when Alan
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in January 2011 and it is unclear when additional talks may take place. 

Iran Sanctions
Current sanctions brought Iran to the table—continued credibility is key
Bloomfield 12/25 (Douglas, Jerusalem Post Staff writer, “Washington watch: What’s really behind the new Iran sanctions bill?,” http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Washington-watch-Whats-really-behind-the-new-Iran-sanctions-bill-336147)

That’s what the backers of the bipartisan Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013 want
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talks, he added. “We lose nothing during this negotiation period.”
Lifting the embargo kills sanctions credibility – emboldens adversaries and turns the case
Brookes 9 (Peter is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. “KEEP THE EMBARGO, O” April 15, 2009, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_Oul9gWKYCFsACA0D6IVpvL)

In the end, though, it's still Fidel Castro and his brother Raul who'll
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communist regime, we should hold firm onto the leverage the embargo provides.
Perception of a strong international sanctions regime incentivizes further cooperation – that’s key to prevent Iranian proliferation and regional war
Rubin 11/10/13 (Joel Rubin is the Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the Ploughshares Fund, “This Is What A Winning Negotiation With Iran Looks Like” http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/11/10/2920331/winning-deal-iran-looks-like/)

The absence of a deal with Iran did nothing to prevent it from increasing its
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acquire a nuclear weapon. This is what a winning negotiation looks like.

Nuclear war
Jeffrey Goldberg 12, Bloomberg View columnist and a national correspondent for the Atlantic, January 23, 2012, “How Iran Could Trigger Accidental Armageddon,” online: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/how-iran-may-trigger-accidental-armageddon-commentary-by-jeffrey-goldberg.html
The experts who study this depressing issue seem to agree that a Middle East in
AND
must be stopped before it reaches fruition with a nuclear weapons delivery capability.”

K
Cuba is insulated from neoliberal pressures now-eliminating the embargo reverses that
Barra, UNICEF international development consultant, 2010
Sacrificing Neoliberalism to Save Capitalism: Latin America Resists and Offers Answers to Crises”, Critical Sociology, 36.5, SAGE)

We may start by highlighting the emblematic Cuban case for its resistance under an American
AND
to establish broad and diverse international relations in order to trade with dignity.

Neoliberalism specifically in Latin America exacerbates inequality and justifies endless intervention — causes extinction – moral obligation to put those oppressed by the West at the center of decision making
Makwana 6 (Rajesh, STWR, 23rd November 06, http://www.stwr.org/globalization/neoliberalism-and-economic-globalization.html, ZBurdette)

Neoliberalism and Economic Globalization
The goal of neoliberal economic globalization is the removal of all barriers to commerce, and the privatization of all available resources and services. In this scenario, public life will be at the mercy of market forces, as the extracted profits benefit the few, writes Rajesh Makwana.
The thrust of international policy behind the phenomenon of economic globalization is neoliberal in nature. Being hugely profitable to corporations and the wealthy elite, neoliberal polices are propagated through the IMF, World Bank and WTO. Neoliberalism favours the free-market as the most efficient method of global resource allocation. Consequently it favours large-scale, corporate commerce and the privatization of resources.
There has been much international attention recently on neoliberalism. Its ideologies have been rejected by influential countries in Latin America and its moral basis is now widely questioned. Recent protests against the WTO, IMF and World Bank were essentially protests against the neoliberal policies that these organizations implement, particularly in low-income countries.
The neoliberal experiment has failed to combat extreme poverty, has exacerbated global inequality, and is hampering international aid and development efforts. This article presents an overview of neoliberalism and its effect on low income countries.
Introduction
After the Second World War, corporate enterprises helped to create a wealthy class in society which enjoyed excessive political influence on their government in the US and Europe. Neoliberalism surfaced as a reaction by these wealthy elites to counteract post-war policies that favoured the working class and strengthened the welfare state.
Neoliberal policies advocate market forces and commercial activity as the most efficient methods for producing
AND
corporations and affluent countries to secure their financial advantage within the world economy.
The policies were most ardently enforced in the US and Europe in the1980s during the
AND
, economic and political leverage, they continue to further their neoliberal objectives.
There is a consensus between the financial elite, neoclassical economists and the political classes
AND
the most likely means of reducing poverty and inequality in the poorest regions.
There is a huge discrepancy between the measurable result of economic globalization and its proposed
AND
economic growth per capita grew to over 8 between 1980 and 2000.)
Neoliberalism has also been unable to address growing levels of global inequality. Over the last 25 years, the income inequalities have increased dramatically, both within and between countries. Between 1980 and 1998, the income of richest 10 as share of poorest 10 became 19 more unequal; and the income of richest 1 as share of poorest 1 became 77 more unequal (again, not including China).
The shortcomings of neoliberal policy are also apparent in the well documented economic disasters suffered
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and medical expertise throughout the region and with other countries around the world.
The dramatic economic and social improvement seen in these countries has not stopped them from
AND
economic dominance has been and continues to be the USA’s main economic objective.
According to Maria Páez Victor: “Since 1846 the United States has carried out
AND
most vicious dictators such as Batista, Somoza, Trujillo, and Pinochet.”
As a result of corporate and US influence, the key international bodies that developing
AND
project contracts. They all gain considerably from the neo-liberal model.
So influential are corporations at this time that many of the worst violators of human rights have even entered a Global Compact with the United Nations, the world’s foremost humanitarian body. Due to this international convergence of economic ideology, it is no coincidence that the assumptions that are key to increasing corporate welfare and growth are the same assumptions that form the thrust of mainstream global economic policy.
However, there are huge differences between the neoliberal dogma that the US and EU
AND
to achieving development by imposing an ideology that suits their own economic needs.
The US and EU also provide huge subsidies to many sectors of industry. These devastate small industries in developing countries, particularly farmers who cannot compete with the price of subsidized goods in international markets. Despite their neoliberal rhetoric, most ‘capitalist’ countries have increased their levels of state intervention over the past 25 years, and the size of their government has increased. The requirement is to ‘do as I say, not as I do’.
Given the tiny proportion of individuals that benefit from neoliberal policies, the chasm between what is good for the economy and what serves the public good is growing fast. Decisions to follow these policies are out of the hands of the public, and the national sovereignty of many developing countries continues to be violated, preventing them from prioritizing urgent national needs.
Below we examine the false assumptions of neoliberal policies and their effect on the global economy.
Economic Growth
Economic growth, as measured in GDP, is the yardstick of economic globalization which
AND
economic growth is the only way to prosper a country and reduce poverty.
Logically, however, a model for continual financial growth is unsustainable. Corporations have to go to extraordinary lengths in order to reflect endless growth in their accounting books. As a result, finite resources are wasted and the environment is dangerously neglected. The equivalent of two football fields of natural forest is cleared each second by profit hungry corporations.
Economic growth is also used by the World Bank and government economists to measure progress
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growth have proved impossible due to the inadequacy of the statistical measures employed.
The mandate for economic growth is the perfect platform for corporations which, as a result, have grown rapidly in their economic activity, profitability and political influence. Yet this very model is also the cause of the growing inequalities seen across the globe. The privatization of resources and profits by the few at the expense of the many, and the inability of the poorest people to afford market prices, are both likely causes.

Reject neoliberalism to embrace Cubanalismo – endorsing Cuba’s economic model is key to demonstrate that alternatives exist outside dominant Western ideology  
Fanelli 8(Carlo Fanelli, Department of Sociology, York University, November 2008, “‘Cubanalismo’: The Cuban Alternative to Neoliberalism”, https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2andik=ca602910b8andview=attandth=1402883ba36493eeandattid=0.1anddisp=inlineandrealattid=f_hjp4psz20andsafe=1andzwandsaduie=AG9B_P_TyPHIjOArXXGZNtwjo8L5andsadet=1375382083142andsads=e9iC4I3SMN1yjSDGkdM0Hnivuwo) ZA

As this paper has attempted to integrate throughout this discussion, alternatives to neoliberalism do
AND
alternative modes of socioeconomic and environmental polices can and do continue to exist.

Tournament: Scranton | Round: 1 | Opponent: Lakeland BT | Judge: Jon Thorn

K

US economic involvement in Mexico is profit-driven and hurts the Mexican people and economy

Cooney, environmental and economic research at the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College, City University of New York, 01 (Paul, "The Mexican Crisis and the Maquiladora Boom A Paradox of Development or the Logic of Neoliberalism?", Latin American Perspectives 28:55, 2001, Sage Publications)AS
Supporters of the maquiladora industry argue that transnational corpora- tion expansion is beneficial and
AND
transnational corporations operating in the northern border region (see Pena, 1997)

And, Neoliberalism causes poverty, social exclusion, societal disintegration, violence and environmental destruction—threatens humanity

De La Barra, Chilean political activist, international consultant and former UNICEF Latin America Public Policy Advisor 07— (Ximena, "THE DUAL DEBT OF NEOLIBERALISM", Imperialism, Neoliberalism and Social Struggles in Latin America", 9/1/09, edited by Dello Bueno and Lara, Brill Online)AS
The currently prevailing neoliberal development model has brought with it various technological advances and economic
AND
, illegal immigrants, etc.) have remained mostly excluded (UNICEF 2001).

And, Neoliberalism is creating its own downfall—movements gathering political steam against it—alt is to reject the neoliberal policies of the aff and allow it to fall

Lafer, political economist and is an Associate Professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center 04 (Gordon, "Neoliberalism by other means: the "war on terror" at home and abroad", New Political Science 26:3, 2004, Taylor and Francis)AS
Finally, the "global justice" movement that came together in the Seattle 1999
AND
parts of the "left" from coming together were threatening to dissolve.

DA

Republicans will agree to immigration reform – Tallent proves

Rubin 12/3 (Jennifer Rubin, She writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, and covers domestic and foreign policy issues providing  insight into the conservative movement and the Republican Party, December 3, 2013, "John Boehner resurrects immigration reform", http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/12/03/john-boehner-resurrects-immigration-reform/)**
If personnel is policy then House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is
AND
public policy, is a great addition to our team and that effort."

The plan drains PC and derails immigration reform — perceived as deprioritizing security, kowtowing to Mexico, and hardliners will control the spin

Shear 13 (Michael, NYT White house correspondent, 5/5, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/world/americas/in-latin-america-us-shifts-focus-from-drug-war-to-economy.html?pagewanted=all)

Last week, Mr. Obama returned to capitals in Latin America with a vastly
AND
in a news conference with Laura Chinchilla, the president of Costa Rica.

Obama’s influence is key to overcome GOP opposition in a quick timeframe; visit shows

Munro 11/29 – (Neil, White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, "Obama escalates fight to increase immigration," 11/29/13, The Daily Caller, http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/29/obama-escalates-fight-to-increase-immigration/**)**

President Barack Obama made a high-profile visit to a D.C.
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stakes campaign, even as his poll ratings amid public opposition to Obamacare.

Comprehensive reform is key to food security

ACIR ’7 (December 4, 2007 THE AGRICULTURE COALITION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Dear Member of Congress: The Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (ACIR) is
AND
important reforms that would provide for a stable and legal farm labor force. 

That kills billions

Brown ’5 (Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, February 7, 2005, People and the Planet, "Falling water tables ’could hit food supply’," http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2424

Many Americans see terrorism as the principal threat to security, but for much of
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For them, it is the next meal that is the overriding concern."

The impact is World War 3

Calvin 98 (William, Theoretical Neurophysiologist – U Washington, Atlantic Monthly, January, Vol 281, No. 1, p. 47-64)

The population-crash scenario is surely the most appalling. Plummeting crop yields would
AND
longer do so if it lost the extra warming from the North Atlantic.

T

Interpretation – Engagement requires government to government DIRECT talks

Crocker ’9 ~9/13/09, Chester A. Crocker is a professor of strategic studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, was an assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. "Terms of Engagement," http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/opinion/14crocker.html?_r=126~~

PRESIDENT OBAMA will have a hard time achieving his foreign policy goals until he masters
AND
realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.

Violation – the aff doesn’t involve talks with the Mexican government

Voting Issue:

1. Limits – there are countless companies that the USFG could engage with in the target countries

2. Ground – the aff denies access to key DA links like country politics

CP

Plan: The United States Federal Government should increase renewable energy integration with the People’s Republic of China through Lithium nanotechnology.

China – US cooperation solves best

NAS 10 (National Academy of sciences, "The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States," 2010, http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12987)

The United States and China are the world’s top two energy consumers and, as
AND
for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

DA

PEMEX reform will pass now, key to the economy

Helman and Fontevecchia 11/22/13 (Christopher Helman, Agustino Fontevecchia, reporters for Forbes, "Mexico’s New President is Heralding Economic Transformation" http://forbesindia.com/article/most-powerful-people/mexicos-new-president-is-heralding-economic-transformation/36569/0)

Yet there is reason for hope. In the shadow of all this hardship a
AND
. "After all, we share the same geology as the USA." 

Plan derails Nieto’s agenda – perceived as interference

Hennessey and Wilkinson 13 ~Kathleen Hennessey and Tracy Wilkinson, writers for the Los Angeles Times, LA Times, "Obama, Mexico leader to avoid hot topics, at least publicly," 5/1/13, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/01/world/la-fg-obama-mexico-20130502

Obama’s visit to Mexico City comes as the fight over border security and immigration reform
AND
, it may signal a "degree of irritation" in private talks.

Reform is key to the Mexican and global economies – investment

Siskind 6/25/13 (Cory, Research analyst, Control Risks, "Mexico Plays the Waiting Game on Big Reforms" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-siskind/mexico-plays-the-waiting-_b_3493542.html)

Early 2013 saw one of the most productive one hundred days in Mexican political history
AND
the lowest rates of domestic credit to the private sector in the Americas.

Nuclear war

Harris and Burrows 9 Mathew, PhD European History @ Cambridge, counselor of the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Jennifer, member of the NIC’s Long Range Analysis Unit "Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical Effects of the Financial Crisis" http://www.ciaonet.org/journals/twq/v32i2/f_0016178_13952.pdf

Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and indeed believes the future is
AND
within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world.

Tournament: Scranton | Round: 6 | Opponent: BCC ID | Judge: Shree Answare

K

Their focus on secondary contradictions rather than capitalism fails and only serves to reify the oppressive system

Tumino 1 ~Stephen, Prof. English @ Pitt, "What is Orthodox Marxism and Why it Matters Now More than Ever", Red Critique, p. online~

Any effective political theory will have to do at least two things: it will
AND
determinism of corporate theory ("knowledge work") that masquerades as social theory.

Only by addressing capitalism can we solve opression – simply allowing minorities to succeed within capitalism ensures reproduction of the harms

Marsh 95 - Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, PhD from Northwestern University (James, Critique Action and Liberation, p 282-3)

Next, we must consider the question concerning the relationship among racism, sexism,
AND
indicates, capitalized sexism is not the same as pre-capitalist sexism.

The goal of critical pedagogy must primarily be to criticize the material conditions of capitalism

McLaren, 2k5  (Peter, Professor at the Graduate School of Education at UCLA, Teaching against global capitalism and the new imperialism: a critical pedagogy, pg. 6-11)
As U.S. imperialism sinks its claws deeper into the rich oil fields
AND
or made invisible. As Paul Lauter (1998) has cogently expressed:
Class... remains that unaddressed member of that now-famous trio "race,
AND
means of challenging current social relations of production and incarnations of imperialism worldwide.

FW

Resolved requires a policy

Louisiana House 3-8-2005, http://house.louisiana.gov/house-glossary.htm**
Resolution  A legislative instrument that generally is used for making declarations,  stating policies, and making decisions where some other form is not  required. A bill includes the constitutionally required enacting clause; a  resolution uses the term "resolved". Not subject to a time limit for  introduction nor to governor’s veto. ( Const. Art. III, §17(B) and House  Rules 8.11 , 13.1 , 6.8 , and 7.4)

Federal government is the national government

Black’s Law 4 (Dictionary, 8^th Edition, June 1, 2004, pg.716.)

Federal government. 1. A national government that exercises some degree of control over smaller political units that have surrendered some degree of power in exchange for the right to participate in national politics matters – Also termed (in federal states) central government. 2.  the U.S. government – Also termed national government. ~Cases: United States -1 C.J.S. United States - - 2-3~

The role of the ballot is to determine if federal government economic engagement toward Cuba, Mexico, or Venezuela is good.

The Aff’s failure to advance a defense of the federal government substantially increasing its economic engagement toward Cuba, Mexico, or Venezuela undermines debate’s transformative and intellectual potential

A limited topic of discussion that provides for equitable ground is key to productive inculcation of decision-making and advocacy skills in every and all facets of life—-even if their position is contestable that’s distinct from it being valuably debatable—-this still provides room for flexibility, creativity, and innovation

Steinberg 26 Freeley 8 *Austin J. Freeley is a Boston based attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil rights law, AND David L. Steinberg , Lecturer of Communication Studies @ U Miami, Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making pp45-

Debate is a means of settling differences, so there must be a difference of
AND
particular point of difference, which will be outlined in the following discussion.

That’s key to social improvements in every and all facets of life

Steinberg 26 Freeley 8 *Austin J. Freeley is a Boston based attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil rights law, AND David L. Steinberg , Lecturer of Communication Studies @ U Miami, Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making pp9-10

If we assume it to be possible without recourse to violence to reach agreement on
AND
in our intelligent self-interest to reach these decisions through reasoned debate.

Only portable skill—-means our framework turns case

Steinberg 26 Freeley 8 *Austin J. Freeley is a Boston based attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil rights law, AND David L. Steinberg , Lecturer of Communication Studies @ U Miami, Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making pp9-10
After several days of intense debate, first the United States House of Representatives and
AND
customer for out product, or a vote for our favored political candidate.¶ 

Discussion of specific policy-questions is crucial for skills development—-we control uniqueness: university students already have preconceived and ideological notions about how the world operates—-government policy discussion is vital to force engagement with and resolution of competing perspectives to improve social outcomes

Esberg 26 Sagan 12 *Jane Esberg is special assistant to the director at New York University’s Center on. International Cooperation. She was the winner of 2009 Firestone Medal, AND Scott Sagan is a professor of political science and director of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation "NEGOTIATING NONPROLIFERATION: Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Nuclear Weapons Policy," 2/17 The Nonproliferation Review, 19:1, 95-108

These government or quasi-government think tank simulations often provide very similar lessons for
AND
quickly; simulations teach students how to contextualize and act on information.14

Their framework’s exclusive, moralizing presupposition that they have to be outside of the state prevents self-reflexivity and results in the total breakdown of dialogue and engagement – thinking about costs and benefits for societies as a whole is important because we are less likely to be violent towards others which is the only way to prevent totalitarian thought and atrocities

Keenan, 1998 (Alan, Ph.D., Member of the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University, Theory and Event, Vol. 2 No. 1, http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v002/2.1keenan.html)**

The anti-political nature of guilt, in turn, helps explain the political
AND
their belief in the futility, aggressivity, and dreariness of political action.

Switch-side is key to self-reflexivity– that forces critical thinking and better advocacy of one’s positions

Keller et al 1 – Asst. professor School of Social Service Administration U. of Chicago (Thomas E., James K., and Tracly K., Asst. professor School of Social Service Administration U. of Chicago, professor of Social Work, and doctoral student School of Social Work, "Student debates in policy courses: promoting policy practice skills and knowledge through active learning," Journal of Social Work Education, Spr/Summer 2001, EBSCOhost)
SOCIAL WORKERS HAVE a professional responsibility to shape social policy and legislation (National Association
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yield a reevaluation and reconstruction of knowledge and beliefs pertaining to the issue. 

Effective deliberation is only possible in a switch-side debate format where debaters divorce themselves from ideology—-that’s key to self-reflexivity which is vital to preventing mass violence and genocide

Patricia Roberts-Miller 3 is Associate Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Texas "Fighting Without Hatred:Hannah Ar endt ’ s Agonistic Rhetoric" JAC 22.2 2003
Totalitarianism and the Competitive Space of Agonism

Arendt is probably most famous for her analysis of totalitarianism (especially her The Origins
AND
not relativist, adversarial but not violent, independent but not expressivist rhetoric.

Tournament: St Marks Sophomore Hoedown | Round: 4 | Opponent: Valley RH | Judge: Jordana Sternberg

DA

Hardline against Cuba now – terror list

Kasperowicz 5/30/13 ~Pete, Staff Writer for the Hill, "State keeps Cuba on terror sponsors list", 5/30/13, http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/americas/302609-cuba-remains-a-state-sponsor-of-terror-despite-some-improvements, Accessed July 6,~
As expected, the State Department on Thursday released a report that keeps Cuba on
AND
between FARC and Colombia were not enough to remove Cuba from the list.

Lifting the embargo is appeasement – emboldens adversaries and turns the case

Brookes 9 (Peter is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. "KEEP THE EMBARGO, O" April 15, 2009, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_Oul9gWKYCFsACA0D6IVpvL)

In the end, though, it’s still Fidel Castro and his brother Raul who’ll
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communist regime, we should hold firm onto the leverage the embargo provides.

Appeasement kills credibility – it shows countries that the US isn’t hard line - playing a weak hand doesn’t work

Weissberg 10 - Professor of Political Science-Emeritus, University of Illinois-Urbana (Robert, "President Obama’s Compulsive Appeasement Disorder", August 27 of 2010, American Thinker, http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/president_obamas_compulsive_ap.html)
There’s a simple explanation: we are no longer feared. Superpowers of yesteryear,
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it. Israel long ago learned this lesson, regardless of world outrage.

Obama’s credibility is uniquely key to solve conflict – prevents Iran prolif

Ben Coes 11, a former speechwriter in the George H.W. Bush administration, managed Mitt Romney’s successful campaign for Massachusetts Governor in 2002 26 author, "The disease of a weak president", The Daily Caller, http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/30/the-disease-of-a-weak-president/
The disease of a weak president usually begins with the Achilles’ heel all politicians are
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one or the other. The status quo is simply not an option.

Indo-Pak war escalates quickly to extinction—-no checks

Greg Chaffin 11, Research Assistant at Foreign Policy in Focus, July 8, 2011, "Reorienting U.S. Security Strategy in South Asia," online: http://www.fpif.org/articles/reorienting_us_security_strategy_in_south_asia

The greatest threat to regional security (although curiously not at the top of most
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lead to all-out war between the two that could quickly escalate.

K

Cuba is insulated from neoliberal pressures now-eliminating the embargo reverses that

Barra, UNICEF international development consultant, 2010
Sacrificing Neoliberalism to Save Capitalism: Latin America Resists and Offers Answers to Crises", Critical Sociology, 36.5, SAGE)

We may start by highlighting the emblematic Cuban case for its resistance under an American
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to establish broad and diverse international relations in order to trade with dignity.

Neoliberalism specifically in Latin America exacerbates inequality and justifies endless intervention — causes extinction – moral obligation to put those oppressed by the West at the center of decision making

Makwana 6 (Rajesh, STWR, 23rd November 06, http://www.stwr.org/globalization/neoliberalism-and-economic-globalization.html, ZBurdette)

Neoliberalism and Economic Globalization
The goal of neoliberal economic globalization is the removal of all barriers to commerce, and the privatization of all available resources and services. In this scenario, public life will be at the mercy of market forces, as the extracted profits benefit the few, writes Rajesh Makwana.
The thrust of international policy behind the phenomenon of economic globalization is neoliberal in nature. Being hugely profitable to corporations and the wealthy elite, neoliberal polices are propagated through the IMF, World Bank and WTO. Neoliberalism favours the free-market as the most efficient method of global resource allocation. Consequently it favours large-scale, corporate commerce and the privatization of resources.
There has been much international attention recently on neoliberalism. Its ideologies have been rejected by influential countries in Latin America and its moral basis is now widely questioned. Recent protests against the WTO, IMF and World Bank were essentially protests against the neoliberal policies that these organizations implement, particularly in low-income countries.
The neoliberal experiment has failed to combat extreme poverty, has exacerbated global inequality, and is hampering international aid and development efforts. This article presents an overview of neoliberalism and its effect on low income countries.
Introduction
After the Second World War, corporate enterprises helped to create a wealthy class in society which enjoyed excessive political influence on their government in the US and Europe. Neoliberalism surfaced as a reaction by these wealthy elites to counteract post-war policies that favoured the working class and strengthened the welfare state.
Neoliberal policies advocate market forces and commercial activity as the most efficient methods for producing
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corporations and affluent countries to secure their financial advantage within the world economy.
The policies were most ardently enforced in the US and Europe in the1980s during the
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, economic and political leverage, they continue to further their neoliberal objectives.
There is a consensus between the financial elite, neoclassical economists and the political classes
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the most likely means of reducing poverty and inequality in the poorest regions.
There is a huge discrepancy between the measurable result of economic globalization and its proposed
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economic growth per capita grew to over 8 between 1980 and 2000.)
Neoliberalism has also been unable to address growing levels of global inequality. Over the last 25 years, the income inequalities have increased dramatically, both within and between countries. Between 1980 and 1998, the income of richest 10 as share of poorest 10 became 19 more unequal; and the income of richest 1 as share of poorest 1 became 77 more unequal (again, not including China).
The shortcomings of neoliberal policy are also apparent in the well documented economic disasters suffered
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and medical expertise throughout the region and with other countries around the world.
The dramatic economic and social improvement seen in these countries has not stopped them from
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economic dominance has been and continues to be the USA’s main economic objective.
According to Maria Páez Victor: "Since 1846 the United States has carried out
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most vicious dictators such as Batista, Somoza, Trujillo, and Pinochet."
As a result of corporate and US influence, the key international bodies that developing
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project contracts. They all gain considerably from the neo-liberal model.
So influential are corporations at this time that many of the worst violators of human rights have even entered a Global Compact with the United Nations, the world’s foremost humanitarian body. Due to this international convergence of economic ideology, it is no coincidence that the assumptions that are key to increasing corporate welfare and growth are the same assumptions that form the thrust of mainstream global economic policy.
However, there are huge differences between the neoliberal dogma that the US and EU
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to achieving development by imposing an ideology that suits their own economic needs.
The US and EU also provide huge subsidies to many sectors of industry. These devastate small industries in developing countries, particularly farmers who cannot compete with the price of subsidized goods in international markets. Despite their neoliberal rhetoric, most ’capitalist’ countries have increased their levels of state intervention over the past 25 years, and the size of their government has increased. The requirement is to ’do as I say, not as I do’.
Given the tiny proportion of individuals that benefit from neoliberal policies, the chasm between what is good for the economy and what serves the public good is growing fast. Decisions to follow these policies are out of the hands of the public, and the national sovereignty of many developing countries continues to be violated, preventing them from prioritizing urgent national needs.
Below we examine the false assumptions of neoliberal policies and their effect on the global economy.
Economic Growth
Economic growth, as measured in GDP, is the yardstick of economic globalization which
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economic growth is the only way to prosper a country and reduce poverty.
Logically, however, a model for continual financial growth is unsustainable. Corporations have to go to extraordinary lengths in order to reflect endless growth in their accounting books. As a result, finite resources are wasted and the environment is dangerously neglected. The equivalent of two football fields of natural forest is cleared each second by profit hungry corporations.
Economic growth is also used by the World Bank and government economists to measure progress
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growth have proved impossible due to the inadequacy of the statistical measures employed.
The mandate for economic growth is the perfect platform for corporations which, as a result, have grown rapidly in their economic activity, profitability and political influence. Yet this very model is also the cause of the growing inequalities seen across the globe. The privatization of resources and profits by the few at the expense of the many, and the inability of the poorest people to afford market prices, are both likely causes.

Reject neoliberalism to embrace Cubanalismo – endorsing Cuba’s economic model is key to demonstrate that alternatives exist outside dominant Western ideology

Fanelli 8(Carlo Fanelli, Department of Sociology, York University, November 2008, "’Cubanalismo’: The Cuban Alternative to Neoliberalism", https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=226ik=ca602910b826view=att26th=1402883ba36493ee26attid=0.126disp=inline26realattid=f_hjp4psz2026safe=126zw26saduie=AG9B_P_TyPHIjOArXXGZNtwjo8L526sadet=137538208314226sads=e9iC4I3SMN1yjSDGkdM0Hnivuwo) ZA

As this paper has attempted to integrate throughout this discussion, alternatives to neoliberalism do
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alternative modes of socioeconomic and environmental polices can and do continue to exist.

CP

The President of the United States should repeal its economic embargo toward Cuba.

Observation 1: Competition

A. The federal government includes all three branches — prefer a definition from legal code

US Code no date ("United States Federal Government Law 26 Legal Definition," http://definitions.uslegal.com/u/united-states-federal-government/)

The United States Federal Government is established by the US Constitution. The Federal Government shares sovereignty over the United Sates with the individual governments of the States of US. The Federal government has three branches: i) the legislature, which is the US Congress, ii) Executive, comprised of the President and Vice president of the US and iii) Judiciary.

B.  Resolutional – Resolved means legislative action

Lousiana House of Representatives 5  (http://house.louisiana.gov/house-glossary.htm)

Resolution   A legislative instrument that generally is used for making declarations, stating policies, and making decisions where some other form is not required. A bill includes the constitutionally required enacting clause; a resolution uses the term "resolved". Not subject to a time limit for introduction nor to governor’s veto. ( Const. Art. III, §17(B) and House ?Rules 8.11 , 13.1 , 6.8 , and 7.4)

Observation 2: Solvency

An XO can eliminate the embargo

Knowles 2009 
(Robert ~Acting Assistant Professor, New York University School of Law~; American Hegemony and the Foreign Affairs Constitution; 41 Ariz. St. L.J. 87; kdf)
Realism is particularly compatible with functional methods of constitutional interpretation. The demands of realpolitik
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to the practical importance of an executive-centered constitutional foreign affairs framework. 

XOS Shape American Policy – they are key to prez powers

McCormick 10 (James M. McCormick, , "American Foreign Policy and Process," http://books.google.com/books?hl=en26lr=26id=m_MOrBfBEmYC26oi=fnd26pg=PR526dq=executive+orders+quick+process26ots=HTAhZJp2qW26sig=7FfCHf0qgQRvKqDAEbGC_c-Dmw0~~23v=onepage26q=eecutive20order26f=false)

Other executive orders in the past sent American foreign policy in a new direction.
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, executive orders afford presidents yet another avenue of influence on foreign affairs.

Obama needs to take unilateral action to solve warming

Westmoreland 10 (Joshua Westmoreland, Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, 1/1/10 "Global Warming and Originalism: The Role of the EPA in the Obama Administration:" http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=102726context=ealr26sei-redir=1~~23search=22presidential20power20global20warming20obama22)

Mapping the national and international response to global warming poses a major challenge to President
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Administrator to issue GHG-emission-limiting regulations pursuant to the CAA.

Only action now solves future catastrophe-must stabilize temperature rise

Antholis and Talbott 10 – Director and President @ Brookings
(William Antholis, managing director of the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow in Governance Studies, former director of studies at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, deputy Sec. of State under Clinton, "The Global Warming Tipping Point," The Globalist, http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=8523)//BB
Moreover, we need to start reductions now in order to slow temperature rise later
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not burn fossil fuels and therefore do not pump CO2 into the atmosphere.

T

A. Interpretation – Removing sanctions is a form of appeasement

Stern 6 (Martin, University of Maryland Graduate, Debunking detente, 11/27/06, http://www.diamondbackonline.com/article_56223e79-7009-56a3-8afe-5d08bfff6e08.html)

Appeasement is defined as "granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace." Giving Iran international legitimacy and removing sanctions would have maintained peace with a potential enemy without changing the undemocratic practices of the enemy. If this isn’t appeasement, I don’t know how better to define the word.

Engagement and appeasement are distinct

Resnick 1 (Evan, Assistant Professor and coordinator of the United States Programme at RSIS, "Defining Engagement," Journal of International Affairs, 0022197X, Spring2001, Vol. 54, Issue 2, http://web.ebscohost.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/ehost/detail?sid=1b56e6b4-ade2-4052-9114-7d107fdbd01940sessionmgr1226vid=226hid=2426bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ3d3d~~23db=mth26AN=4437301)

Thus, a rigid conceptual distinction can be drawn between engagement and appeasement. Whereas
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or in exchange for certain concessions on the part of the target state.

B. Violation – they remove restrictions – that’s appeasement

C. Voting issue

1. Limits – infinite amount of restrictions the aff can remove – explodes neg research burden

2. Ground – Lose spending links based off of increases in funding

Soft Power

No soft power impact and can’t solve – too intangible

Blechman 5 – Founder and President of DFI International Inc. (Barry M., "Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics", Political Science Quarterly, Volume 119, Issue 4, http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=15064)//VP

Joseph Nye has done his usual masterful job in this elegant monograph, describing the
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citizens of all nations that take place independent of government actions or inactions.

Gene Tech Development Makes Bioterrorism Impossible- Prefer the Most Recent Evidence

Hurst and Burgis 2013 (James A. Hurst and Nicholas E. Burgis, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Eastern Washington University, May 16, 2013. "Current Trends in Bioterrorism and Biodefense." http://www.omicsonline.org/2157-2526/2157-2526-S3-e002.pdf)//NR
Current trends in bioterrorism and biodefense research have resulted in the realization of cheap,
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in place to ensure discovery remains on the current trajectory for these fields.

And, No bioterrorism or impact- Multiple Obstacles and No Motive

Stolar 6 October 2006, *Alex Stolar: Research Officer, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, "BIOTERRORISM AND US POLICY RESPONSES ASSESSING THE THREAT OF MASS CASUALTY," http://www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/1659566521IPCS-Special-Report-31.pdf//NR
Each of these steps presents significant hurdles for terrorists. Acquiring a strain of a
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served so many doctors so well for so long: Primum non nocere.  

Hegemony

No impact to hegemony

Friedman 10 (Ben Friedman, research fellow in defense and homeland security, Cato. PhD candidate in pol sci, MIT, Military Restraint and Defense Savings, 20 July 2010, http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-bf-07202010.html)

Another argument for high military spending is that U.S. military hegemony underlies
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and threaten to drag us into wars, while providing no obvious benefit.

US hegemony is resilient and not declining – continued economic and military dominance

Ponniah, 13 – Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Department of African and African-American Studies, Harvard University (Thomas, "Prediction for 2013: The decline of China and the resilience of the U.S.," 1/9, http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/01/prediction-2013-decline-china-and-resilience-us)//SY
Many progressives — such as Walden Bello, Samir Amin, and the leftist states
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impressive as ever, its division and redistribution are typically less than inspiring.

No transition wars – even if the U.S. declines, liberal norms and institutions check the impact

Ikenberry 11 (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," May/June issue of Foreign Affairs,  http://www.foreignaffairs.com/ articles/67730/g-john-ikenberry/the-future-of-the-liberal-world-order?page=show)

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

Hegemony doesn’t allow the US to deter conflicts or otherwise influence international affairs

Farley, 12 – Assistant Professor, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, University of Kentucky (Robert, "Over the Horision: The Future of American Hegemony," World Politics Review, 3/7, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/11696/over-the-horizon-the-future-of-american-hegemony)//SY

What are the dangers? Hegemony has never meant the ability to achieve any outcome
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demonstrate not only American power, but also reinforce confidence in American leadership.

China

China US economic ties means there will never be a war over Taiwan – the costs are prohibitively high

Buszynski 09 – Ph.D. (International Relations), London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor of International Relations at International University of Japan, author of several books and publications in journals (LESZEK BUSZYNSKI, "Sino-Japanese Relations: Interdependence, Rivalry and Regional Security", Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal Of International 26 Strategic Affairs, 31(1), 143-171, 2009, EBSCO)js

The US indeed would be the critical factor in Beijing’s calculation of risk over Taiwan
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ftom a changing situation it may, however, have that unintended result.

A - Issue-Specific Uniqueness. Post-Chavez, "pink tide" is dying. Shortage of oil profits hurts the Leftist cause.

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 4^th – 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
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regional change than encapsulated by the narrative of the rise of the left.

Chavez’s goal of hurting US regional influence now stands in the cross-roads. Petro-dollars will be important.

Menéndez ’13
Fernando Menéndez is an economist and principal of the Cordoba Group International LLC, a strategic consulting firm – "Latin America without Chávez" – The Commentator – March 14^th –    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2932/latin_america_without_ch_vez

In all of the capitals of the Americas the atmosphere is one of waiting to
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even among some ideological enemies, and for which he will be missed.

B – Links:

First – Squo is starting to work. Lifting the embargo for oil reverses resolve.

Sadowski ’11
Richard Sadowski is a Class of 2012 J.D. candidate, at Hofstra University¶ School of Law, NY. Mr. Sadowski is also the Managing Editor of Production of¶ the Journal of International Business and Law Vol. XI. "Cuban Offshore Drilling: Preparation and¶ Prevention within the Framework of the United¶ States’ Embargo" – ¶ Sustainable Development Law 26 Policy¶ Volume 12; Issue 1 Fall 2011: Natural Resource Conflicts Article 10 – http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=149726context=sdlp

Since its inception, the Cuban embargo has ebbed and¶ flowed in severity and
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Cuba and demonstrate resolve in¶ meeting the goals of the economic embargo.

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.

C- Impact

First – 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 ~232064 — 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.

Tournament: Yale | Round: 1 | Opponent: NYCUDL WY | Judge: Raul Larsen
ERROR

Tournament: Contact Info | Round: 9 | Opponent: NA | Judge: NA
for neg cites--

michong3@gmail.com

(but everything should be up )