Tournament: Emory | Round: 3 | Opponent: Carrollton | Judge: Rob Mulholland
1NC
Obama’s PC is on the brink – he can hold off sanctions on Iran but must maintain focus
--assumes thumpers and PC low: obamacare, immigration, farm bill, minimum wage, or “anything else”
--PC solves non-u: will swing Senators currently voting under pressure from Israel
--perception immediate and key: Iran will miscalculate if it thinks sanctions will pass
--escalation likely: even if risk from any single crisis is low now, cumulative risk increases and makes inevitable
Finkel 14 (David Finkel, editor of Against the Current, sponsor of New Politics, “Will the Iran Deal Hold?” ATC, #168, Jan/Feb 2014, http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4058)

A politically weakened U.S. president is pulled by a powerful domestic lobby
AND
their own rulers, the issues that produce one crisis after another remain.

New agenda items overstretch PC and trigger cascading prolif and war with Iran
Sabet 9-13 (Farzan Sabet, co-founder and editing manager of IranPolitik.com, doctoral student in International History and M.A. International History and Politics, Graduate Institute, Geneva, focused on international relations, international trade law, and Iranian domestic politics and foreign policy, “4: Iran: Resolving the Nuclear Crisis,” Journal of Public and International Affairs, September 2013, p.74-77, http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2013/JPIA-2013-Final.pdf)
American President Barack Obama currently has an unprecedented opportunity to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis
AND
last forever. Part three lays out the four policy proposals in detail.

War with Iran risks nuclear world war III.
Reuveny 10 - Professor of political economy @ Indiana University  Dr. Rafael Reuveny (PhD in Economics and Political Science from the University of Indiana), “Guest Opinion: Unilateral strike on Iran could trigger world depression,” McClatchy Newspaper, Aug 9, 2010,  pg. http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/news/speaking_out/reuveny_on_unilateral_strike_Iran.shtml

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely
AND
U.S. forces on nuclear alert, replaying Nixon’s nightmarish scenario.
1NC
Interpretation - Engagement requires DIRECT talks – means both governments must be involved
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
AND
realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).

Violation – The affirmative is not engagement – they only increase investment

Reject the team

Limits – not limiting engagement to the 2 governments involved blows the lid off the topic – justifies the involvement of international organizations, non governmental actors, and private companies

Ground – direct engagement with the government is the only stable basis for negative ground – both governments must be involved to gain links to international politics DA’s, explicit QPQ’s, and relations based disadvantages

1NC
Text: Brazil should form a council through UNASUR including Mexico to promote cooperation on biofuel investment and drug cartel eradication specifically that biofuel investment and anti-criminal network activities should occur in Mexico.

UNASUR empirically succeeds in institution building- councils formed through it are key to regional cooperation
Riggirozzi 11 (Pía, Research Officer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, Region, Regionness and Regionalism in Latin America: Towards a New Synthesis, http://www.uasb.edu.ec/UserFiles/372/File/pdfs/CENTRO20ANDINO20DE20ESTUDIOS20INTERNACIONALES/Pia20Riggirozzi20Region20regionnes20and20regionalism2020NPE202011.pdf, 8/9/11)

Although the idea of a unified counter-hegemony to supplant neoliberalism in Latin America
AND
the South African Customs Union and the EU (Tussie 2010: 12).

Increased regional cooperation is key to Latin American regionalism- the plan and perm overextend the US which devastates regional institutions
Riggirozzi and Tussie 12 (Pia, Research Officer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, Diana, senior research fellow at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Argentina. She is coeditor (with David Glover) of The Developing Countries in World Trade: Policies and Bargaining Strategies (Lynne Rienner, 1993), The Rise of Post-Hegemonic Regionalism: The Case of Latin America, http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rise_of_Post_Hegemonic_Regionalism.html?id=2P10d7hf0jQC, 1/6/12)

Domestic politics and institutions, in particular the stale, were for long thought to
AND
social movements and leaders interact and construct new understandings of the regional space.

Regional integration through UNASUR key to solve Amazon deforestation
Breuer 10 (McCall, Council on Hemispheric Affairs Research Associate, BRAZIL AND UNASUR: REGIONAL SECURITY AND THE NATION’S WORLD STANDING IN THE ERA OF ROUSSEFF’S RULE, http://www.coha.org/brazil-and-unasur-regional-security-and-the-nationE28099s-world-sanding-in-the-era-of-rousseffE28099s-rule/, 11/2/10)

One of the most pressing environmental issues to which Brazil will have to respond is
AND
predominant regional leader and be recognized as such on the global geopolitical stage.

Extinction
Takacs 96 (David, Philosophies of Paradise, The Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr., Baltimore)
"Habitat destruction and conversion are eliminating species at such a frightening pace that extinction
AND
the famines could lead to a thermonuclear war, which could extinguish civilization.""

1NC

Using the Ex-Im bank to finance biofuels distorts free market activity and crowds out private sector solutions.
James 12 (Sallie, CATO, “Ending the Export-Import Bank”, October 2012, http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/export-import-bank)

The Export-Import Bank is a federal agency that subsidizes the financing of U
AND
macroeconomic factors such as the difference between the level of savings and investment.

The affirmative forecloses the ability of markets and human ingenuity to solve the impacts they invoke—fatal conceit in the context of energy policy makes their impacts inevitable and cause policy failure.
Robinson 8 (Colin, Institute of Economic Affairs “Climate Change Policy: Challenging the Activists,” http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-book440pdf?.pdf)

There is, however, more to the apocalyptic forecast than that because it always
AND
years, they were still lower in real terms than in 1980.3 

This is an a priori voting issue—sound economic epistemology is key to the efficacy of all social and political praxes—the terminal impact is extinction
Reisman 96 (George, Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/Economics20and20Capitalism.htm)

In the absence of a widespread, serious understanding of the principles of economics,
AND
be unable to survive in the absence of Western food and medical supplies.
The alternative is to reject the affirmative to embrace the chaos of the market—it’s the only way to solve the case.
Taylor 8 (Jerry, CATO, Powering the Future, 8/22, http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9609)

Before you confidently hold forth about the future of energy markets, you really ought
AND
a better job picking "winners" than would-be central planners.

Tournament: Glenbrooks | Round: 2 | Opponent: University Prep | Judge: Mimi Sergent-Leventhal
1NC

The 1AC’s presentation of equality is a clever ruse of the majority- it is a form of narcissistic hegemony that guarantees the continuation of discrimination for the accepted other- instead, we must decenter the legal apparatus from discussion to endorse equality
Arrigo and Williams, of the California School of Professional Psychology, 2000 Bruce and Christopher, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, August page First Search

The impediments to establishing democratic justice in contemporary American society have caused a national paralysis
AND
of alterity, undecidability, cultural plurality, and affirmative postmodern thought.8

Ethics and justice is the undeconstructable condition for any act of deconstruction because it allows for the otherness of any event. Policymakers should take the concept of justice into account when they make any decision because that decision exists only in the realm of the text. In the context of the 1AC it is ethically necessary to affirm our act of deconstruction.
McQuillan, 2k9 (Martin, MA, PhD, Glasgow, Deconstruction After 9/11, Routledge, pg. 85-87)

Again to be for Justice is to be in favour of breathing and given the
AND
techne; such is the dream of the death-cult of contemporary managerialism

Any impact outside of justice embraces a flawed notion of responsibility which justifies mass sacrifice- their impacts of “value to life” and “oppression” are a false example of responsibility that is in no way liberating for the oppressed
Derrida 1995, “The Gift of Death,” p. 83-7

What is thus found at work in everyday discourse, in the exercise of justice
AND
the other, who becomes for his part nothing more than a murderer? 

Our form of absolute hospitality for ethics must exist in extra-political spaces that are capable of dismantling the violence of sovereignty – we don’t take umbrage with the 1AC’s goal, but instead we dispute their claim that ethics are possible
Carroll Prof of French @ UC-Irvine 2007 David MLN 122.4 project muse 

To acknowledge the priority of the ethical over the political is to make demands on
AND
with establishing and legitimizing sovereignty; the ethical with undermining and dismantling it.

Our alternative is to reject the affirmative in favor of an embrace of the impossibility of justice, this is key to deconstructing the hegemony of the law the only way that we can achieve equality- their ethics are impossible under the aff, but we can truly engage in ethics
Arrigo and Williams, of the California School of Professional Psychology, 2000 Bruce and Christopher, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, August page First Search

The distinction between justice and law has significant ramifications for the logic of the gift
AND
thing to be transacted, eliminates its prospects as something to be given.

1NC vs. Anti-Blackness
The topic presents us with the quandary of that which has often been forgotten in debate—engaging it is a “risk” that might reshape our identities from their supposedly Euro-American centric points. Identites don’t begin from these points but are always being remade
Bost 2011 (Suzanne, Associate Professor of English at Loyola-Chicago, Bridges p. 194-196)

Rather than endorsing or critiquing feminist spirituality, I want to highlight the shape of
AND
). It takes faith and imagination to be hopeful about changing the world.
The polemical 1AC destroys hopes for a topic-centered coalitionism by whitewashing US imperialism and glossing over the transnational
Falcon 2008 (Sylvanna, Professor at UC-Riverside, “MESTIZA DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS ¶ The Voices of Afro-Peruvian Women on ¶ Gendered Racism” in Gender and Society 22.5)

My own research on the WCAR 2001 supports Crooms's argument in ¶ that some U
AND
feminist organizing in the borderlands, an argument Sofia and ¶ Monica confirm.
The quest for empire has no end—this debate is part of a tapestry of imperial power whose unraveling can stave off extermination
William Eckhardt, Lentz Peace Research Laboratory of St. Louis, February 1990, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 1, jstor, p. 15-16

Wright looked at the relation between modern civilization and war in somewhat more detail,
AND
ethical challenge is very urgent indeed. Life itself may depend upon our choice

Vote negative to embrace a methodology related to mestiza conciousness. Rejecting polemics in favor of an embracement of allyship contributes to a global movement centered around anti-racism
Torres 2005 (Monica, assistant professof of Enlgish at New Mexico State, EntreMundos/Among Worlds p.198-200)

Central to this alternative epistemology is motion. Note the language Anzalllla u
AND
, I believe, Anzaldua advocates for a more just world for all.

1NC PIC

Vote negative to endorse investigation and deconstruction of whiteness in the discourses of immigration.

The politics of affirmation produce a weak ontology that lacks the political moment necessary to produce a productive act. The aff divests the ability of politics to be oppositional.  Our advocacy embraces radical negativity and oppositional politics
Dean 2005 Jodi A politics of avoidance: the limits of weak ontology http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/files/butler_and_ontology.doc
Some political theorists argue that the proper response to this fundamentalism is generosity.1
AND
few while the majority are rendered criminal, illegal, diseased, disposable. 

Their ethos of generosity results in global war and destruction via the war on terrorism –only voting neg can solve
Jodi Dean, assc. Prof of political theory at Hobart and Williams smith 2007
Why Žižek for Political Theory? , http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/ijzs/article/view/18/41, IJŽS Vol 1, No 1
Slavoj Žižek’s work is indispensable to any effort to break out of the present political
AND
Fundamentalism, they chorus, opposes the unfolding of freedom in the world.

Tournament: Glenbrooks | Round: 6 | Opponent: Bishop Guertin | Judge: Maggie Berthiaume
1NC
The Slave ruptures agambens idea of bare life – acquiescing to the outlayed definition of social death downplays the role of civil society in structuring anti-blackness – positing social death and bare life as synonymous is the link
Ziarek 12 (Ewa, University of buffalo Julian Park Professor of Comparative Literature. Her teaching includes feminist theory, modernism, continental philosophy, ethics, and critical theory, Bare Life, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/o/ohp/10803281.0001.001/1:11/~-~-impasses-of-the-post-global-theory-in-the-era-of-climate?rgn=div1;view=fulltext)

The notion of slavery a substitute for death complicates Agamben’s central thesis that sovereign decision
AND
genealogy, the principle of a new beginning (Arendt 7–11 ).

The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

The position of the Slave is the essential starting point for analysis of social systems
Tibbs Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University College of Law and Woods Assistant Professor of Criminology, Sonoma State University 2008 Donald F. and Tryon P. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 7 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 235 lexis 

Slavery is the indispensable starting point for our inquiry into the kind of state violence
AND
the freedom to enslave others, was crucial to European overseas expansion. n65

1NC
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely. 

Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded. 

And let them bear the guilty burden, before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden, before their children and before
 history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors
 of peace.”

--Jumah al Dossari
Guantanamo exists in a realm beyond good and evil, defined by pure violence. Built on Cuban land by the American military, it is governed by neither and falls outside the juridical control of any nation the “enemy combatant” is at once accused, judged, and punished - stripped of all nationality, rights, and humanity, and reduced to bare life under the guise of “detainee”.
Pease, 03 (Donald E. Pease, the Avalon Foundation Chair of the Humanities at Dartmouth College, “The Global Homeland State: Bush's Biopolitical Settlement”, Duke University Press, boundary 2 30.3 (2003) 1-18, rm)

The detention camps were in a realm beyond good and evil, where abduction and
AND
"enemy combatants," "material witness," and "persons of interest."
This exception to the human condition was ratified by the American public. The Homeland Security Act permanently endowed the state with the power to administer the collective vitality of its citizens, inscribing the body-politic into a state order with power over its collective life and death.
Pease, 03 (Donald E. Pease, the Avalon Foundation Chair of the Humanities at Dartmouth College, “The Global Homeland State: Bush's Biopolitical Settlement”, Duke University Press, boundary 2 30.3 (2003) 1-18, rm)

As we have seen, the Homeland enacted into law by the Homeland Security Act
AND
detainees' condition of unprotected flesh negatively regulated the dislocatee's relation to the Homeland.
Guantanamo is not one isolated example, but the order of the day. In response to the horrors of the modern state, we demand observation through the wire - a view into the despair, hopelessness, isolation, rightlessness, invisibility and voicelessness of detainees around the world. Poetry from detainees is a verbal expression of solidarity that escapes the constraints of traditional methods of speech. We recognize that we cannot change government policy - instead, the goal is to question the very grounds upon which debates about policy are premised.
Edkins and Pin-Fat, 05 (Jenny Edkins is Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth, and Véronique Pin-Fat is Lecturer in International Relations in the Centre for International Politics at the University of Manchester, “Through the Wire: Relations of Power and Relations of Violence”, Millennium - Journal of International Studies 2005 34: 1, 8/1/05, rm)

Certain, albeit limited, parallels can be drawn between detention camps and the concentration
AND
rather to question the very grounds upon which debates about policy are premised.

Mediating ethics through the state ? exoneration of responsibility for violence – turns the aff
Rozo, MA in philosophy and Cultural Analysis, 2004 Diego, Forgiving the Unforgivable: On Violence, Power, and the Possibility of Justice  p 19-21
Within the legal order the relations between individuals will resemble this logic where  suffering is
AND
– the law  infiltrates into and seeks to rule our most private conflicts.

Case

Aff fails - viewing bio-power as power from above makes resistance impossible
Hardt 2000 (Michael, teaches in the Literature Program and Romance Studies Department at Duke University
THEORY AND EVENT, ttp://musejhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v004/4.3hardt.html)

But still none of that addresses the passivity you refer to. For that we
AND
finally is a new biopolitics that reveals the struggles over forms of life.

The 1AC has immortalized the drug trade and traffickers that are complicit in it- reject the 1AC to show social denial of their influence
Torres 5 (George, board of directors university of Illinois book reviews, book review: Banda: Mexican Musical Life across Borders by Helena Simonett, jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4153035)
In spite of its status on the periphery, banda took on an intercultural dimen
AND
their repertoire, performing forces, and live spectacle to compete with the newer

The Mexican drug trade is indefensible – gratuitous violence, corruption, torture and the brutal killing of civilians are all things the 1AC asks that you be complicit with
Chalk 11 (Peter, Ph.D. in political science, University of British Columbia; M.A. in political studies and international relations, University of Aberdeen, The Latin American Drug Trade: Scope, Dimensions, Impact, and Response, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2011/RAND_MG1076.pdf)

The Latin American drug trade has had a pervasive and insidious impact that has affected
AND
that exist in both state and federal forces (as outlined above).29

Tournament: Greenhill | Round: 2 | Opponent: Austin SFA | Judge: Juan Garcia
1NC
Debt ceiling will pass- Obama’s key in negotiations
O’Brien 9/20 (Michael O’Brien , Political Reporter, NBC News, House votes to fund government, gut Obamacare, http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/20/20598822-house-votes-to-fund-government-gut-obamacare?lite)

The posturing by the Republican-controlled House means Washington now faces a narrow window
AND
compromise to keep the government open that can win the support of Congress.

Economic engagement with Mexico is politically divisive despite supporters
Wilson 13 – Associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International. Center for Scholars (Christopher E., January, “A U.S.-Mexico Economic Alliance: Policy Options for a Competitive Region,” http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/new_ideas_us_mexico_relations.pdf)

At a time when Mexico is poised to experience robust economic growth, a manufacturing
AND
action to support regional exporters more politically divisive than it ought to be.
Obama has capital and it’s key to debt ceiling
Lanenkamp 7/13/13 (Andy, Global political analyst at ECR Research and Interest and Currency Consultants, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-langenkamp/obama-to-take-over-baton-_b_3571885.html)
Obama's weakened hand reduces the chance that he can move the fiscal agenda forward.
AND
with the goods and take more decisive action than they have hitherto done. 

Debt default kills the economy
Schwarcz 8/14/13 (Steven L., Star Professor of Law and Business, and Founding Director, Duke Global Capital Markets Center, Duke University of School of Law, “Rollover Risk: Ideating a U.S. Debt Default,” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2307569)
A U.S. debt default would have both microeconomic and macroeconomic, or
AND
securities as riskier, and thus they demanded a higher interest rate.162

Nuke war
Harris and Burrows 9 (Mathew, PhD European History at Cambridge, counselor in the 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)

Increased Potential for Global Conflict Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and
AND
within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world.

1NC
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books

In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).
Vote negative
a) Limits –conditionality forces the aff to find deals that topic countries would accept
b) Ground – unconditionality prevents us from having core arguments on the topic like say no and backlash
c) The combination of all possible unconditional affs makes it impossible to be neg . 

1NC
Text: The Director of the Department of State should issue and publish in the Code of Federal Regulations a policy memorandum that relevant United States entities should substantially increase their nanofactory development assistance to Mexico.

Competes --- policy statements do not make law --- they’re legally distinct from the plan because they’re only position-taking
Koch 5 (Charles H. Jr., Professor of Law – William and Mary School of Law, “Policymaking by the Administrative Judiciary”, Alabama Law Review, Spring, 56 Ala. L. Rev. 693, Lexis)

n110 E.g., Consol Edison Co of New York v. FERC,
AND
. . Policy statements are binding on neither the public, nor the agency
The practical effect is identical to binding law --- memo sends a signal of the plan and agencies will comply
Hunnicutt 99 (James, JD – Boston College Law School, “Another Reason to Reform the Federal Regulatory System: Agencies' Treating Nonlegislative Rules as Binding Law”, Boston College Law Review, December, 41 B.C. L. Rev 153, Lexis)

Rules created without process--interpretative rules, general statements of policy, rules of
AND
the rule in court and have given up on the appeals process. 156

CP’s process violates the APA and undermines administrative law --- perm doesn’t solve because it acts in accordance with legislation
Anthony 92 (Robert A., Foundation Professor of Law – George Mason University School of Law, “Interpretive Rules, Policy Statements, Guidances, Manuals, And The Like -- Should Federal Agencies Use Them To Bind The Public?”, Duke Law Journal, June, 41 Duke L.J. 1311, Lexis)

With one exception, the answer to the question in the title is "
AND
use of nonlegislative policy documents is the capital problem addressed by this Article.
APA power is bad – props-up the worst forms of executive privilege specifically in foreign affairs.
Wirth ‘93
David A. Wirth – Assistant Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University – American University Journal of International Law and Policy – Fall, 1993 – lexis 

A great deal can also be done at the purely national level in the absence
AND
rulemaking is not warranted merely because of the international context for decision making.
Excessive Power in this regard is bad – causes massive violence.
Rockwell 96 – Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., president of the Mises Institute, editor of LewRockwell.com, 1996, “Down With the Presidency,” http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/prez.html

The presidency is seemingly bound by law, but in practice it can do just
AND
Abraham. It is the chair itself that must be reduced to kindling.

1NC
Economic engagement universalizes a colonizing epistemology that reinforces the hierarchy that perpetuates ways of knowing that privilege the white heterosexual male
Baker 2009 Michael, University of Rochester, Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Graduate Student, Situating Modern Western Education within the Modern/colonial World System, Unpublished Paper ,June 2009 , academia.edu

This interpretation of modernity as intertwined with coloniality of power offers an original critique of
AND
a secular philosophical worldview. (Wallerstein, 2006, p. 1)
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

Tournament: Greenhill | Round: 5 | Opponent: New Trier WB | Judge: Stephen Pipkin
1NC
Syria means Debt Ceiling Will Pass
Reuters 8/28/13 (“Syria military action could lower temperature in U.S. budget battles,” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-usa-fiscal-syria-idUSBRE97R06020130828)
Possible U.S. military strikes against Syria could cool the temperature of Washingtonand#39;s
AND
a budget analyst at the Cato Institute and a former Capitol Hill aide.

Mexico Energy Cooperation causes controversial amendment attempts and political fights on unrelated issues
CFR Senior Staff Oversight Report, 12 (Committee Foreign Relations Oversight Study, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, requested senior professional staff members to review opportunities for enhanced U.S.-Mexico engagement on oil and gas issues including the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Agreement, which requires Congressional action to take effect. As part of that review, members of Senator Lugarand#39;s staff traveled to Mexico City in October 2012 to meet with then President-elect Enrique Pena Nietoand#39;s transition team and leaders from the Mexican Congress, PEMEX, the Mexican energy regulator Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos, U.S. industry, academic specialists, and U.S. officials at Embassy Mexico City.\1\ This report contains their public findings and Recommendations, 12/21, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-112SPRT77567/html/CPRT-112SPRT77567.htm)

The Transboundary Agreement (TBA) provides a bilateral basis upon which both countries can
AND
the TBA itself, thus possibly miring the TBA in other political fights.

Obama has capital and it’s key to debt ceiling
Lanenkamp 7/13/13 (Andy, Global political analyst at ECR Research and Interest and Currency Consultants, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-langenkamp/obama-to-take-over-baton-_b_3571885.html)
Obamaand#39;s weakened hand reduces the chance that he can move the fiscal agenda forward.
AND
with the goods and take more decisive action than they have hitherto done. 

Debt freeze sparks food crisis
Min ‘10 (David, Associate Director for Financial Markets Policy at the Center for American Progress, 2010 “The Big Freeze The Conservative Pledge to Freeze the Debt Ceiling Is a Looming Disaster”, 10/28/10, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/10/big_freeze.html)

A freeze on the debt ceiling could erode confidence in U.S. Treasury
AND
while potentially triggering greater global instability—perhaps even a global economic depression. 

Global war
Brown ’09 (Lester, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, “The Geopolitics of Food Scarcity”, 2-11, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,606937-2,00.html)

The deteriorating world food situation is not occurring in a vacuum: it comes at
AND
is not the concentration of power but its absence that now threatens us. 

1NC
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).

Vote negative
a) Limits –conditionality forces the aff to find deals that topic countries would accept
b) Ground – unconditionality prevents us from having core arguments on the topic like say no and backlash
c) The combination of all possible unconditional affs makes it impossible to be neg . 

1NC
Obama’s balancing environmental and industry concerns by approving Keystone and power plant regs- that averts a political backlash from environmentalists
Killough 6-26 – Ashley Killough, CNN reporter, June 26th, 2013, and#34;Obama wants limits on coal plants, says Keystone canand#39;t boost pollutionand#34; www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/obama-climate-change
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama unveiled an aggressive new climate change strategy
AND
countries to work together to fight the and#34;global threat of our time.and#34;

Obama’s pulling back offshore drilling- it’s a bargaining chip- the plan angers environmentalists
John Wojick 10, Editor, People’s World, 12/2/10, “Environmentalists hail Obama curb on offshore drilling,” http://www.peoplesworld.org/environmentalists-hail-obama-curb-on-offshore-drilling/
The Obama administration announced yesterday that it was withdrawing plans for expanding oil drilling in
AND
on environmental issues, as Republicans exercise their increased clout on Capitol Hill.

Keystone’s vulnerable- appeasing the environmental base’s key to passage
Andrew Restuccia 13, Politico energy reporter, former energy and environmental reporter for The Hill, 2/8/13, “Can Obama pair Keystone, climate action?,” Politico, http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=4F387968-2B0B-43D8-9A84-C55EB3FC76E0
Of course, a Keystone approval is far from a done deal. With climate
AND
already laying the groundwork to stifle environmentalists’ outcry if he approves the pipeline.

Canada would backlash if Keystone dies because of political fights-~--destroys relations
NYT 2-17 – New York Times, 2/17/13, “Obama Faces Risks in Pipeline Decision,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/business/energy-environment/obamas-keystone-pipeline-decision-risks-new-problems-either-way.html?pagewanted=alland_r=1and#hTiaTri,1
Mr. Obama’s recent expressions of concern about climate change contrast starkly with Mr.
AND
that the decision is made on noise, there will be extreme disappointment.”

Canadian relations solve global nuclear war
Lamont, 94 Lansing, national political correspondent for Time Magazine’s Washington bureau from 1961-1968, chief Canada correspondent and United Nations bureau chief from 1971-1975, member of the Council on Foreign Relations  “Breakup: The coming end of Canada and the stakes for America”, 1994, p. 233-5
Of graver import would be the will and capability of Canada itself to continue supporting
AND
situations the usual safeguards are sometimes apt to be disregarded or even removed.

1NC
Text:  The governments of the United States and Mexico will agree to never drill in the gap area of the Gulf of Mexico.   The governments of the United States and Mexico will enter into energy cooperation over oil and gas, electricity transmission, and climate change and renewables.  

We can do energy cooperation without drilling – solves relations and PEMEX
Wood, 3/13/2012 (Duncan, Director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “Growing Potential for U.S.-Mexico Energy Cooperation” Wilson Center http://wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/wood_energy.pdf)

Looking ahead to the next six years of interaction between governments of Mexico and the
AND
S. in areas such as pricing, regulation and industry best practices.

1NC
The affirmative is a search for the next hydrocarbon “El Dorado”. Hydrocarbons impact our social and material reality and the aff continues biophysical violence against the environment and political violence against the body politic
Watts 99 (Michael, Professor of Geography and Director of the Institute of International Studies
at the University of California, Berkeley. He has a longstanding interest in agrarian change and rural
development in Africa, South Asia and California, but has also conducted research on environmental movements and the political ecology of development, Petro-Violence: Some Thoughts on Community, Extraction, and Political Ecology, http://faculty.unlv.edu/wjsmith/smithtest/wsmithWattsPetroViolence.pdf, 1999)

I want to offer some thoughts on the violence that so often attends particular sorts
AND
its all-encompassing power, and as the lifeline to hydrocarbon civilization. 

Oil’s impact on our social relations results in a biopolitical regime of death that perpetuates bare life and endless violence- peak oil ensures they can’t get offense
Watts 12 (Michael, Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, A Tale of Two Gulfs: Life, Death, and Dispossession along Two Oil Frontiers, p. 438-439)

Another line of reasoning—Michael Klare’s new book The Race for What’s Left (
AND
as I show, a regime of death, of bare life.8

The alternative is to vote negative to unimagine petrostates in political geographies. Rejection of the 1AC’s imagination of new petrostate communities unravels the community of violence perpetuated by hydrocarbons
Watts 4 (Michael J., Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, Antinomies of Community: Some Thoughts on Geography, Resources and Empire, JSTOR, p. 212-213)

Petro-capitalism in Nigeria operates through a particular sort of oil complex that is
AND
the complex geographies of and#39;communities of violenceand#39; in contemporary Nigeria ... or Iraq.

Tournament: MBA | Round: Quarters | Opponent: Centennial KK | Judge:
1NC
Our interpretation is that the affirmative must defend an increase in economic engagement toward Cuba, Mexico, or Venezuela by the United States federal government.
We have definitional support ---

1. “Resolved” before a colon reflects a legislative forum
   Army Officer School 4 (5-12, “# 12, Punctuation – The Colon and Semicolon”, http://usawocc.army.mil/IMI/wg12.htm)

The colon introduces the following: a.  A list, but only after "
AND
resolved:"Resolved: (colon) That this council petition the mayor.

2. “United States Federal Government should” means the debate is solely about the outcome of a policy established by governmental means
Ericson 3 (Jon M., Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts – California Polytechnic U., et al., The Debater’s Guide, Third Edition, p. 4)

The Proposition of Policy: Urging Future Action In policy propositions, each topic contains
AND
compelling reasons for an audience to perform the future action that you propose. 

The affirmative’s failure to advance a topical defense of federal policy undermines debate’s transformative and intellectual potential
First, A limited topic of discussion that provides for ground for discussion is key to productive 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--- T debates also solve any possible turn
Steinberg and 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.
Second, Discussion of specific policy-questions is crucial for skills development--- forces students to engage in concrete issues of government policy formulation
Esberg and 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
Third, Switch-side is key---Effective deliberation is only possible in a switch-side debate – forces critical thinking and better advocacy of one’s positions
Keller, et. al, 01 – 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
AND
yield a reevaluation and reconstruction of knowledge and beliefs pertaining to the issue.
Effective decision-making outweighs---
Key to improvement in all aspects of life
Steinberg and 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
John F. Kennedy used Cabinet sessions and National Security Council meetings to provide debate
AND
in our intelligent self-interest to reach these decisions through reasoned debate.
It’s the only portable skill
Steinberg and 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.

Effective deliberation is the lynchpin of solving all existential global problems
Christian O. Lundberg 10 Professor of Communications @ University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, “Tradition of Debate in North Carolina” in Navigating Opportunity: Policy Debate in the 21st Century By Allan D. Louden, p311
The second major problem with the critique that identifies a naivety in articulating debate and
AND
dealing with the existential challenges to democracy in an increasingly complex world.
And independently a voting issue for limits and ground---our entire negative strategy is based on the “should” question of the resolution---there are an infinite number of reasons that the scholarship of their advocacy could be a reason to vote affirmative--- these all obviate the only predictable strategies based on topical action---they overstretch our research burden and undermine preparedness for all debates

1NC
Only Koreans can oppress blacks, the unidirectional nature of that linkage proves that antiblackness lies at the nexus of oppression but also that Korean communitites and scholarship are anti-black – their argument is backwords – model minority status does not magically create antiblackness – the invocation of model minority status as a truth claim is an antiblack machine gun
NIDT 12 (Notes in a diasporic tounge, a blog about Asian America racism and anti-blackness, antiblackness and the model minority myth, http://huayi-qiouyi.com/post/120)

I can tell that someone pro-korean wrote the bits about anti-korean
AND
this is touchy, so please feel free to call me out and discuss
We control the root cause
Nakagawa 13 (Scott, Lifelong political activist, community organizer, organization builder, and trouble-maker, So, I Ask You, What If Trayvon Martin Was Asian?, http://www.racefiles.com/2013/07/14/so-i-ask-you-what-if-trayvon-martin-was-asian/)

But what if Trayvon Martin was Asian? Here’s what I had to say about
AND
, that would be a compliment, and I just can’t go there.

The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

The ontological position of the Slave is the essential starting point for analysis of social systems
Tibbs Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University College of Law and Woods Assistant Professor of Criminology, Sonoma State University 2008 Donald F. and Tryon P. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 7 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 235 lexis 

Slavery is the indispensable starting point for our inquiry into the kind of state violence
AND
the freedom to enslave others, was crucial to European overseas expansion. n65

Tournament: MBA | Round: 4 | Opponent: St Marks JM | Judge: Herndon
1NC
Obama’s PC is on the brink – he can hold off sanctions on Iran but must maintain focus
--assumes thumpers and PC low: obamacare, immigration, farm bill, minimum wage, or “anything else”
--PC solves non-u: will swing Senators currently voting under pressure from Israel
--perception immediate and key: Iran will miscalculate if it thinks sanctions will pass
--escalation likely: even if risk from any single crisis is low now, cumulative risk increases and makes inevitable
Finkel 14 (David Finkel, editor of Against the Current, sponsor of New Politics, “Will the Iran Deal Hold?” ATC, #168, Jan/Feb 2014, http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4058)

A politically weakened U.S. president is pulled by a powerful domestic lobby
AND
their own rulers, the issues that produce one crisis after another remain.

New agenda items overstretch PC and trigger cascading prolif and war with Iran
Sabet 9-13 (Farzan Sabet, co-founder and editing manager of IranPolitik.com, doctoral student in International History and M.A. International History and Politics, Graduate Institute, Geneva, focused on international relations, international trade law, and Iranian domestic politics and foreign policy, “4: Iran: Resolving the Nuclear Crisis,” Journal of Public and International Affairs, September 2013, p.74-77, http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2013/JPIA-2013-Final.pdf)
American President Barack Obama currently has an unprecedented opportunity to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis
AND
last forever. Part three lays out the four policy proposals in detail.

War with Iran risks nuclear world war III.
Reuveny 10 - Professor of political economy @ Indiana University  Dr. Rafael Reuveny (PhD in Economics and Political Science from the University of Indiana), “Guest Opinion: Unilateral strike on Iran could trigger world depression,” McClatchy Newspaper, Aug 9, 2010,  pg. http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/news/speaking_out/reuveny_on_unilateral_strike_Iran.shtml

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely
AND
U.S. forces on nuclear alert, replaying Nixon’s nightmarish scenario.

1NC
Interpretation - Engagement requires DIRECT talks – means both governments must be involved
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
AND
realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.

Violation – The affirmative is not engagement – they only lift sanctions

Reject the team

Limits – not limiting engagement to the 2 governments involved blows the lid off the topic – justifies the involvement of international organizations, non governmental actors, and private companies

Ground – direct engagement with the government is the only stable basis for negative ground – both governments must be involved to gain links to international politics DA’s, explicit QPQ’s, and relations based disadvantages
1NC
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

1NC
Froman will pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership now- it’s a fight and uninterrupted negotiations are key
Sekiguchi 13 (Toko, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Trade Representative Addresses Trade Conflicts With Japan Ahead Of TPP Brunei Talks, http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130819-704151.html, 8/19/13)

Top trade negotiators for Japan and the U.S. met on Monday to
AND
-standard, ambitious, comprehensive agreement that includes the elimination of tariffs."

Froman’s agenda is fragile- any new additions tradeoff with vital negotiations
Needham 13 (Vicki, reporter at the Hill, Froman warns lack of resources may stymie trade agenda, http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/312049-froman-warns-lack-of-resources-may-stymie-trade-agenda#ixzz2cf9UMngm, 7/18/13)

Michael Froman, the White House's top trade official, warned Congress on Thursday that
AND
-level standards for additional trade deals down the road, Froman said. 

TPP is key to economic growth, trade, Asian pivot
Petri et al 12 -Peter A. Petri is a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics, the Carl J. Shapiro Professor of International Finance at the  Brandeis International Business School, and a senior fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Michael G. Plummer is the Professor of International Economics at the Johns Hopkins University, SAIS-Bologna, and a senior fellow at the East-West Center , (“The Trans-Pacific Partnership  and Asia-Pacific Integration:  Policy Implications”, June 2012, http://xxx.iie.com/publications/pb/pb12-16.pdf)//sawyer

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, now in negotiation among nine
AND
—that the  United States would likely demand to open its markets further. 

Nuke war
Harris and Burrows 9 (Mathew, PhD European History at Cambridge, counselor in the 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)

Increased Potential for Global Conflict Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and
AND
within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world.
1NC
Text: The United States federal government should amend Title 22 of US Code (22 U.S.C. 6065) so that a transition government in Cuba is defined as a government that is taking appropriate steps to restitute and/or compensate United States citizens for property taken by the Cuban government, as outlined in the following addendum. The United States federal government should offer to negotiate a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Cuba that includes a Step-Down Restitution Policy.

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

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

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

(b) Additional factors
In addition to the requirements in subsection (a) of this section, in determining whether a transition government in Cuba is in power, the President shall take into account the extent to which that government-
(1) is demonstrably in transition from a communist totalitarian dictatorship to representative democracy;
(2) has made public commitments to, and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) effectively guaranteeing the rights of free speech and freedom of the press, including granting permits to privately owned media and telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba;
(B) permitting the reinstatement of citizenship to Cuban-born persons returning to Cuba;
(C) assuring the right to private property; and
(D) taking appropriate steps to return to United States citizens (and entities which are 50 percent or more beneficially owned by United States citizens) property taken by the Cuban Government from such citizens and entities on or after January 1, 1959, or to provide equitable compensation to such citizens and entities for such property;
(3) has extradited or otherwise rendered to the United States all persons sought by the United States Department of Justice for crimes committed in the United States; and
(4) has permitted the deployment throughout Cuba of independent and unfettered international human rights monitors.
(Pub. L. 104–114, title II, §205, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 811.)
Language post-counterplan
Title 22-FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE CHAPTER 69A-CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD) SUBCHAPTER II-ASSISTANCE TO FREE AND INDEPENDENT CUBA
§6065. Requirements and factors for determining transition government
(a) Requirements
For the purposes of this chapter, a transition government in Cuba is a government that is-
(1) has legalized all political activity;
(2) has released all political prisoners and allowed for investigations of Cuban prisons by appropriate international human rights organizations;
(3) has dissolved the present Department of State Security in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, including the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Rapid Response Brigades; and
(4) has made public commitments to organizing free and fair elections for a new government-
(A) to be held in a timely manner within a period not to exceed 18 months after the transition government assumes power;
(B) with the participation of multiple independent political parties that have full access to the media on an equal basis, including (in the case of radio, television, or other telecommunications media) in terms of allotments of time for such access and the times of day such allotments are given; and
(C) to be conducted under the supervision of internationally recognized observers, such as the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and other election monitors;

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

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

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

Setting up a Bilateral Investment Treaty as a mechanism for compensation helps Cuba meet the only condition that is keeping the embargo in place
Mowry, Senior Counsel Xerox Corporation, ’99 (David, “Lifting the Embargo against Cuba Using Vietnam as a Model: A Policy Paper for Modernity” Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 25 Brooklyn J. Int'l L. 229, lexis)
The obstacles that prevent a President from lifting the embargo against Cuba arbitrarily would appear
AND
S. Government would not be liable for any losses.   *262
Step-Down Restitution Policy is the best mechanism – flexibility in payment ensures appropriate and quick redress and means Cuba says yes
Espino, JD Candidate Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, ‘8 (Daniel- President and Chairman of the Board of Puente de Jovenes Profesionales Cubanos  and President of the Hispanic Law Students Association, Spring, “Step-Down Restitution: A Proposal For An Equitable Resolution To Confiscated Cuban Property” Nova Law Review, 32 Nova L. Rev. 423, lexis)
 *451  V. IMPLEMENTATION The Step-Down Restitution Policy should be
AND
justice for Cuba's transgressions by allowing them to receive individualistic and equitable remediation.

First net-benefit is the Taking Clause
Embargo holds Cuba responsible for compensation for expropriated property – lifting it makes the US responsible under the Takings Clause which causes suits that collapse investment
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, ’95 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
B. Full Compensation as an Inflexible Standard In extreme cases, full compensation may
AND
cast a cloud over any progress in U.S.-Cuban relations.

Second net-benefit is the ICJ –
ICJ has ruled US compensation claims to be legitimate and enforceable
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, ’95 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
A. Cuba's Violation of International Law Cuba has violated international law by taking U
AND
law by not compensating former U.S. owners of Cuban property.
Aff slaps the ICJ in the face – has the US determine compensation not needed which kills overall credibility and international law
Choharis, Scholar George Washington University Law School, 6 (Peter Charles, November, “U.S. Courts and the International Law of Expropriation: Toward a New Model for Breach of Contract” Southern California Law Review, 80 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1, lexis)
B. U.S. Courts' Interpretation of International Law This Article addresses whether
AND
law, U.S. courts are practiced in ascertaining international law, 

Strong and credible ICJ is key to international conflict dispute mechanisms
UNNC 12 (UN News Centre- internally citing Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, UN moves ahead with efforts to reinforce rule of law worldwide, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/html/story.asp?NewsID=43253andCr=rule+of+lawandCr1=#.UpPbh8RDuSp, 10/10/12)

Mr. Eliasson highlighted the crucial role played by the network of international tribunals such
AND
to ratify international rights treaties and promulgate national laws that uphold these obligations.
Absent effective international conflict dispute mechanisms extinction is inevitable
Damrosch and Mullerson 95 (Professor of Law, Columbia, Professor of International Law, King’s, Beyond Confrontation, International Law for the Post Cold War Era, p. 2-3)

The contemporary world has an ever-increasing need for an international legal system that
AND
with the U.N. Charter and other norms of international law.

Tournament: Northwestern Round Robin | Round: 2 | Opponent: Northside | Judge: Arnett, Quigley
1NC
Deal coming now-missteps lead to Congressional sanctions that tank negotiations
Slavin, Atlantic Council senior fellow, 11-12-13
(Barbara, “Despite Hitch, Iran Nuclear Deal in Sight”, http://www.cfr.org/iran/despite-hitch-iran-nuclear-deal-sight/p31838, ldg)

The prospects for an interim agreement between Tehran and world powers to limit Iran's nuclear
AND
coming up, but it would be very harmful to the negotiations.

Political capital is key to prevent more sanctions
Pillar, Georgetown security studies professor, 10-18-13 (Paul, “Sabotaging Iran Nuclear Talks”, http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sabotaging-Iran-Nuclear-Ta-by-Consortium-News-Iran_Iran-Versus-Israel_Nuclear-Powers_Obama-131018-347.html, ldg)

But if you are interested in avoiding an Iranian nuclear weapon -- the focus of
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negotiating tables in the Middle East or Geneva but also on Capitol Hill.

Border cooperation unpopular – assumes all your warrants
Washington Post 13 (Washington Post, “Obama accepts change in U.S.-Mexico partnership against drug cartels,” 5/3/13, http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Obama-accepts-change-in-U.S.-Mexico-partnership-against-drug-cartels_Friday-May-03-2013 )

But the security partnership between Mexico and the United States has been the biggest potential
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administration to make adjustments in the mechanics and organization of our security relationship." 

Sanctions lead to negotiations failure triggers military strikes and regional proliferation-causes escalatory wars and collapses the economy.
Cordesman, CSIS, 2013
(Anthony, “Negotiating with Iran: The Strategic Case for Pragmatism and Real Progress”, 9-23, http://csis.org/publication/negotiating-iran-strategic-case-pragmatism-and-real-progress, ldg)

Nevertheless, it makes no sense at all to reject Hassan Rouhani’s opening or condemn
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end result is a major interruption in the flow of Gulf petroleum exports.

1NC
Interpretation – Economic engagement includes trade and aid
Resnick 1 – Dr. Evan Resnick, Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, “Defining Engagement”, Journal of International Affairs, Spring, 54(2), Ebsco
Scholars have limited the concept of engagement in a third way by unnecessarily restricting the
AND
be shown below, permits the elucidation of multiple types of positive sanctions.

Violation - The aff is law enforcement
Realuyo 12 -  Celina B. Realuyo, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars “It’s All about the Money:¶ Advancing Anti-Money Laundering Efforts in ¶ the U.S. and Mexico to Combat Transnational ¶ Organized Crime” http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Realuyo_U.S.-Mexico_Money_Laundering_0.pdf

U.S. and Mexican efforts to combat money laundering associated with the TCOs
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enforcement investigations and 5. Prosecutions that bring money launderers to justice.34

That’s a voter for fairness and education – economic engagement is the only functional limit on the topic – allowing any sort of cooperation explodes the topic and makes it unmanageable. Also destroys core disad ground – links are predicated off of cooperation on economic issues

At best, they’re extra topical – law enforcement components of the aff open the floodgates to arbitrary extra-topical aff mechanisms  – artificially explodes advantage ground and shifts the topic to an aff bias lit base
1NC
Economic engagement is an imperialist tool used to forward US geopolitical dominance – economic influence perpetuates the North/South geographical divide which makes war inevitable
Jones, Jones, and Woods, 4 (Martin Jones* - PhD in Human Geography from the University of Manchester, Rhys Jones; Professor of Human Geography at the University
of Wales Aberystwyth - Professor in Human Geography @ the University¶ of Wales Aberystwyth, Michael Woods* - PhD in Human Geography from Bristol University; Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences @ the University¶ of Wales Aberystwyth, 2004, “AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY Space, place and politics”, http://118.97.161.124/perpus-fkip/Perpustakaan/Geography/Geografi20manusia/Pengantar20Geografi20Politik.pdf) MD

Political domination can take on many forms. At¶ its most basic and uncompromising
AND
and the broader international political economy (see Agnew and Corbridge¶ 1995).¶ 

The catastrophes of imperialism trump other impacts
William Eckhardt, Lentz Peace Research Laboratory of St. Louis, February 1990, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 1, jstor, p. 15-16

Wright looked at the relation between modern civilization and war in somewhat more detail,
AND
ethical challenge is very urgent indeed. Life itself may depend upon our choice

This debate is one of citizenship- the 1ac is a call for imperialism- a refusal to this call prevents the colonization of your mind and allows for real world pragmatism
Orr 2004 (Jackie, Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University, “The Militarization of Inner Space” Critical Sociology 30.2)

“Every American is a soldier” now, declared George W.
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might arrive in time for the fight for less terrorizing future spaces. 10

Vote negative to reject the affirmative. Our lives are not more valuable than the lives of those suffering the horrors of imperialism. Prioritizing the alternative creates real politics.
Butler, professor of rhetoric at Berkeley, 2009 p. 2-4 (Judith, Frames of War)

The precarity of life imposes an obligation upon us. We have to ask about
AND
crafting power, and which limits the finality of any of its effects. 

1NC
Text: Brazil should form a council through UNASUR including Mexico to promote cooperation on anti-money laundering initiatives specifically this council should substantially increase engagement with Mexico on accountability-based anti-money laundering initiatives.
UNASUR empirically succeeds in institution building- councils formed through it are key to regional cooperation
Riggirozzi 11 (Pía, Research Officer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, Region, Regionness and Regionalism in Latin America: Towards a New Synthesis, http://www.uasb.edu.ec/UserFiles/372/File/pdfs/CENTRO20ANDINO20DE20ESTUDIOS20INTERNACIONALES/Pia20Riggirozzi20Region20regionnes20and20regionalism2020NPE202011.pdf, 8/9/11)

Although the idea of a unified counter-hegemony to supplant neoliberalism in Latin America
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the South African Customs Union and the EU (Tussie 2010: 12).
Increased regional cooperation is key to Latin American regionalism- the plan and perm overextend the US which devastates regional institutions
Riggirozzi and Tussie 12 (Pia, Research Officer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, Diana, senior research fellow at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Argentina. She is coeditor (with David Glover) of The Developing Countries in World Trade: Policies and Bargaining Strategies (Lynne Rienner, 1993), The Rise of Post-Hegemonic Regionalism: The Case of Latin America, http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rise_of_Post_Hegemonic_Regionalism.html?id=2P10d7hf0jQC, 1/6/12)

Domestic politics and institutions, in particular the stale, were for long thought to
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social movements and leaders interact and construct new understandings of the regional space.

Regional integration through UNASUR key to solve Amazon deforestation
Breuer 10 (McCall, Council on Hemispheric Affairs Research Associate, BRAZIL AND UNASUR: REGIONAL SECURITY AND THE NATION’S WORLD STANDING IN THE ERA OF ROUSSEFF’S RULE, http://www.coha.org/brazil-and-unasur-regional-security-and-the-nationE28099s-world-sanding-in-the-era-of-rousseffE28099s-rule/, 11/2/10)

One of the most pressing environmental issues to which Brazil will have to respond is
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predominant regional leader and be recognized as such on the global geopolitical stage.

Extinction- cross apply their tckacks ev

Tournament: Northwestern Round Robin | Round: 5 | Opponent: Walter Payton | Judge: Vellayapan, Worku
1NC
Farm bill will pass but it’s very close --- impact is food price spikes
Reuters 11/11/13, “U.S. Congress has about 50/50 chance of passing farm bill in 2013 –analyst,” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/12/usa-agriculture-farm-bill-idUSL2N0IX01T20131112
Nov 11 (Reuters) - The chances of the U.S. Congress
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parity" which led to sharply higher guaranteed crop prices, Flinchbaugh said.
Plan costs capital
Aho 13 (Matthew Aho, Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Advisor, What Does Obama's Second Term Hold for U.S.-Cuba Relations?, http://www.cubastudygroup.org/index.cfm/newsroom?ContentRecord_id=2c202b27-1916-4509-b1b7-00d7ed8f4914, 1/23/13)

Aside from easing some travel restrictions, there have been only two emergent themes on
AND
could prove vital and create new opportunities for U.S. business.
PC is key --- overcomes partisanship
Josh Lederman 10/18/13, reporter for the Associated Press, and Jim Kuhnhenn, “No safe bets for Obama despite toned-down agenda,” US News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2013/10/18/no-safe-bets-for-obama-despite-toned-down-agenda
WASHINGTON (AP) — Regrouping after a feud with Congress stalled his agenda,
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the year if our focus is on what's good for the American people."
Food price spikes cause extinction
Brown 9 (Lester R, Founder of the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute “Can Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” Scientific American, May, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages)
The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries
AND
states disintegrate, their fall will threaten the stability of global civilization itself.

1NC
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books

In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).
Vote negative
a) Limits –conditionality forces the aff to find deals that topic countries would accept
b) Ground – unconditionality prevents us from having core arguments on the topic like say no and backlash
c) The combination of all possible unconditional affs makes it impossible to be neg . 

1NC
Froman will pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership now- it’s a fight and uninterrupted negotiations are key
Sekiguchi 13 (Toko, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Trade Representative Addresses Trade Conflicts With Japan Ahead Of TPP Brunei Talks, http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130819-704151.html, 8/19/13)

Top trade negotiators for Japan and the U.S. met on Monday to
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-standard, ambitious, comprehensive agreement that includes the elimination of tariffs."

Froman’s agenda is fragile- any new additions tradeoff with vital negotiations
Needham 13 (Vicki, reporter at the Hill, Froman warns lack of resources may stymie trade agenda, http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/312049-froman-warns-lack-of-resources-may-stymie-trade-agenda#ixzz2cf9UMngm, 7/18/13)

Michael Froman, the White House's top trade official, warned Congress on Thursday that
AND
-level standards for additional trade deals down the road, Froman said. 

TPP is key to economic growth, trade, Asian pivot
Petri et al 12 -Peter A. Petri is a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics, the Carl J. Shapiro Professor of International Finance at the  Brandeis International Business School, and a senior fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Michael G. Plummer is the Professor of International Economics at the Johns Hopkins University, SAIS-Bologna, and a senior fellow at the East-West Center , (“The Trans-Pacific Partnership  and Asia-Pacific Integration:  Policy Implications”, June 2012, http://xxx.iie.com/publications/pb/pb12-16.pdf)//sawyer

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, now in negotiation among nine
AND
—that the  United States would likely demand to open its markets further. 

Nuke war
Harris and Burrows 9 (Mathew, PhD European History at Cambridge, counselor in the 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)

Increased Potential for Global Conflict Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and
AND
within and between states in a more dog-eat-dog world.

1NC
Representing China as a source of instability constructs threat construction and makes violence a self-fullfing prophecy
Pan, Political Science and International Relations Professor at Australian National University, 2004
(Chengxin, Alternatives, “The "China threat" in American self-imagination: the discursive construction of other as power politics,” 6/1/2004)

I have argued above that the "China threat" argument in mainstream U.
AND
, and less dangerous ways of interpreting and debating China might become possible.  

The catastrophes of imperialism trump other impacts
William Eckhardt, Lentz Peace Research Laboratory of St. Louis, February 1990, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 1, jstor, p. 15-16

Wright looked at the relation between modern civilization and war in somewhat more detail,
AND
ethical challenge is very urgent indeed. Life itself may depend upon our choice

This debate is one of citizenship- the 1ac is a call for imperialism- a refusal to this call prevents the colonization of your mind and allows for real world pragmatism
Orr 2004 (Jackie, Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University, “The Militarization of Inner Space” Critical Sociology 30.2)

“Every American is a soldier” now, declared George W.
AND
might arrive in time for the fight for less terrorizing future spaces. 10

Vote negative to reject the affirmative. Our lives are not more valuable than the lives of those suffering the horrors of imperialism. Prioritizing the alternative creates real politics.
Butler, professor of rhetoric at Berkeley, 2009 p. 2-4 (Judith, Frames of War)

The precarity of life imposes an obligation upon us. We have to ask about
AND
crafting power, and which limits the finality of any of its effects. 

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

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

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

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

(b) Additional factors
In addition to the requirements in subsection (a) of this section, in determining whether a transition government in Cuba is in power, the President shall take into account the extent to which that government-
(1) is demonstrably in transition from a communist totalitarian dictatorship to representative democracy;
(2) has made public commitments to, and is making demonstrable progress in-
(A) effectively guaranteeing the rights of free speech and freedom of the press, including granting permits to privately owned media and telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba;
(B) permitting the reinstatement of citizenship to Cuban-born persons returning to Cuba;
(C) assuring the right to private property; and
(D) taking appropriate steps to return to United States citizens (and entities which are 50 percent or more beneficially owned by United States citizens) property taken by the Cuban Government from such citizens and entities on or after January 1, 1959, or to provide equitable compensation to such citizens and entities for such property;
(3) has extradited or otherwise rendered to the United States all persons sought by the United States Department of Justice for crimes committed in the United States; and
(4) has permitted the deployment throughout Cuba of independent and unfettered international human rights monitors.
(Pub. L. 104–114, title II, §205, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 811.)
Language post-counterplan
Title 22-FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE CHAPTER 69A-CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD) SUBCHAPTER II-ASSISTANCE TO FREE AND INDEPENDENT CUBA
§6065. Requirements and factors for determining transition government
(a) Requirements
For the purposes of this chapter, a transition government in Cuba is a government that is-
(1) has legalized all political activity;
(2) has released all political prisoners and allowed for investigations of Cuban prisons by appropriate international human rights organizations;
(3) has dissolved the present Department of State Security in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, including the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Rapid Response Brigades; and
(4) has made public commitments to organizing free and fair elections for a new government-
(A) to be held in a timely manner within a period not to exceed 18 months after the transition government assumes power;
(B) with the participation of multiple independent political parties that have full access to the media on an equal basis, including (in the case of radio, television, or other telecommunications media) in terms of allotments of time for such access and the times of day such allotments are given; and
(C) to be conducted under the supervision of internationally recognized observers, such as the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and other election monitors;

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

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

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

Setting up a Bilateral Investment Treaty as a mechanism for compensation helps Cuba meet the only condition that is keeping the embargo in place
Mowry, Senior Counsel Xerox Corporation, ’99 (David, “Lifting the Embargo against Cuba Using Vietnam as a Model: A Policy Paper for Modernity” Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 25 Brooklyn J. Int'l L. 229, lexis)
The obstacles that prevent a President from lifting the embargo against Cuba arbitrarily would appear
AND
S. Government would not be liable for any losses.   *262
Step-Down Restitution Policy is the best mechanism – flexibility in payment ensures appropriate and quick redress and means Cuba says yes
Espino, JD Candidate Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, ‘8 (Daniel- President and Chairman of the Board of Puente de Jovenes Profesionales Cubanos  and President of the Hispanic Law Students Association, Spring, “Step-Down Restitution: A Proposal For An Equitable Resolution To Confiscated Cuban Property” Nova Law Review, 32 Nova L. Rev. 423, lexis)
 *451  V. IMPLEMENTATION The Step-Down Restitution Policy should be
AND
justice for Cuba's transgressions by allowing them to receive individualistic and equitable remediation.

First net-benefit is the Taking Clause
Embargo holds Cuba responsible for compensation for expropriated property – lifting it makes the US responsible under the Takings Clause which causes suits that collapse investment
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, ’95 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
B. Full Compensation as an Inflexible Standard In extreme cases, full compensation may
AND
cast a cloud over any progress in U.S.-Cuban relations.

Second net-benefit is the ICJ –
ICJ has ruled US compensation claims to be legitimate and enforceable
Smagula, Associate with Totti, Rodriguez Diaz and Fuentes, ’95 (John, Fall, “Redirecting Focus: Justifying the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and Resolving the Stalemate” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 21 N.C.J. Int'l L. and Com. Reg. 66, lexis)
A. Cuba's Violation of International Law Cuba has violated international law by taking U
AND
law by not compensating former U.S. owners of Cuban property.
Aff slaps the ICJ in the face – has the US determine compensation not needed which kills overall credibility and international law
Choharis, Scholar George Washington University Law School, 6 (Peter Charles, November, “U.S. Courts and the International Law of Expropriation: Toward a New Model for Breach of Contract” Southern California Law Review, 80 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1, lexis)
B. U.S. Courts' Interpretation of International Law This Article addresses whether
AND
law, U.S. courts are practiced in ascertaining international law,

Tournament: Pace Round Robin | Round: 4 | Opponent: Lexington | Judge: Pipkin, Whitmore
1NC
Obama’s PC is on the brink – he can hold off sanctions on Iran but must maintain focus
--assumes thumpers and PC low: obamacare, immigration, farm bill, minimum wage, or “anything else”
--PC solves non-u: will swing Senators currently voting under pressure from Israel
--perception immediate and key: Iran will miscalculate if it thinks sanctions will pass
--escalation likely: even if risk from any single crisis is low now, cumulative risk increases and makes inevitable
Finkel 14 (David Finkel, editor of Against the Current, sponsor of New Politics, “Will the Iran Deal Hold?” ATC, #168, Jan/Feb 2014, http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4058)

A politically weakened U.S. president is pulled by a powerful domestic lobby
AND
their own rulers, the issues that produce one crisis after another remain.

New agenda items overstretch PC and trigger cascading prolif and war with Iran
Sabet 9-13 (Farzan Sabet, co-founder and editing manager of IranPolitik.com, doctoral student in International History and M.A. International History and Politics, Graduate Institute, Geneva, focused on international relations, international trade law, and Iranian domestic politics and foreign policy, “4: Iran: Resolving the Nuclear Crisis,” Journal of Public and International Affairs, September 2013, p.74-77, http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2013/JPIA-2013-Final.pdf)
American President Barack Obama currently has an unprecedented opportunity to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis
AND
last forever. Part three lays out the four policy proposals in detail.

War with Iran risks nuclear world war III.
Reuveny 10 - Professor of political economy @ Indiana University  Dr. Rafael Reuveny (PhD in Economics and Political Science from the University of Indiana), “Guest Opinion: Unilateral strike on Iran could trigger world depression,” McClatchy Newspaper, Aug 9, 2010,  pg. http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/news/speaking_out/reuveny_on_unilateral_strike_Iran.shtml

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely
AND
U.S. forces on nuclear alert, replaying Nixon’s nightmarish scenario.
1NC
Interpretation - Engagement requires DIRECT talks – means both governments must be involved
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
AND
realistic options and, hence, to modify its policies and its behavior.

Violation – The affirmative is not engagement – they only fund a bank

Reject the team

Limits – not limiting engagement to the 2 governments involved blows the lid off the topic – justifies the involvement of international organizations, non governmental actors, and private companies

Ground – direct engagement with the government is the only stable basis for negative ground – both governments must be involved to gain links to international politics DA’s, explicit QPQ’s, and relations based disadvantages

1NC
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

1NC
TEXT: The United States federal government should substantially augment its transportation infrastructure and non-renewable energy manufacturing assistance through the North American Development Bank. 

CP is competitive and solves the case---it’s less than the plan because it funds only a subset of infrastructure, whereas the aff funds the category as a whole---presumption goes neg because the CP is the least change from the status quo
Increasing border transportation investments solve
Rodriguez—1AC Author—9 Raul Rodriguez, chairman of the board of advisors of the north American center for transborder studies at ASU, prof at the HEB School of Business and Administration at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio Texas, President of RMI, an investment and trade consulting firm in Mexico, served as CEO and Manging Director of NADBank until 2005, “The Future of the North American Development Bank” June 2009 http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/RODRIGUEZ20NADBANK.pdf

Some sectors are more amenable than others for bilateral cooperation. Water—¶ and environmental
AND
partnerships might be the most important ¶ contribution to the border’s development today. 

1NC
North America falling behind in clean tech development now---this allows for China to take the lead---it’s zero-sum---key to Chinese growth, CCP stability, soft power, and warming
McMahon 13 Tamsin is a reporter for the National Post. “How China is going to save the world,” 1/27, http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/01/27/business/

China’s ongoing struggles with pollution have been a blight on the country’s international reputation.
AND
of them related in some way to environmental protection and renewable energy technology.

China’s economic rise prevents CCP instability and lashout --- decline tubes the global economy, US primacy, and Sino relations
Mead 9 Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, “Only Makes You Stronger,” The New Republic, 2/4/9, http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=571cbbb9-2887-4d81-8542-92e83915f5f8
The greatest danger both to U.S.-China relations and to American power
AND
modernization and change; nobody knows what will happen if the growth stops.

CCP instability causes extinction
Yee and Storey 2 Herbert is a Professor of Politics and IR @ Hong Kong Baptist University, and Ian is a Lecturer in Defence Studies @ Deakin University. “The China Threat: Perceptions, Myths and Reality,” p. 5
The fourth factor contributing to the perception of a China threat is the fear of
AND
disintegrating China would also pose a threat to its neighbours and the world.

Tournament: St Marks | Round: Octas | Opponent: GBN DK | Judge:
1
Focus on the environment is a problem—causes mass violence and sanitizes complicity with structural violence by scapegoating
Kumari 12—Masters in International Relations; educated at University of Nottingham and The University of Birmingham (Parmila, Securitising The Environment: A Barrier To Combating Environment Degradation Or A Solution In Itself?, www.e-ir.info/2012/01/29/securitising-the-environment-a-barrier-to-combating-environment-degradation-or-a-solution-in-itself/)

“The Dilemma should by now be apparent; securitising environmental issues runs the risk
AND
to immobilise any action towards dealing with the root causes of environmental degradation.

Discussing warming in terms of catastrophic impacts that access global populations produces an erasure of the everyday consumptive practices that contribute to the ongoing colonial environmental apocalypse—vote negative to refuse to ignore structural violence
Wynne 2009 (Brian, Professor of Science Studies at Lancaster University, “Strange Weather, Again” in Theory, Culture and Society 27.2)

Despite its many critics, the 1972 Limits to Growth study shattered the selfsatis?ed and
AND
, public uptakes, and public engagements more resilient, and practically rewarding.

The catastrophes of imperialism trump other impacts- causes war and extinction
William Eckhardt, Lentz Peace Research Laboratory of St. Louis, February 1990, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 1, jstor, p. 15-16

Wright looked at the relation between modern civilization and war in somewhat more detail,
AND
ethical challenge is very urgent indeed. Life itself may depend upon our choice
The alternative text is: Vote negative to reject the affirmative.
Our lives are not more valuable than the lives of those suffering the horrors of imperialism. Prioritizing the alternative creates real politics.
Butler 9 (Judith, professor of rhetoric at Berkeley, Frames of War, p. 2-4)

The precarity of life imposes an obligation upon us. We have to ask about
AND
crafting power, and which limits the finality of any of its effects. 

This debate is one of citizenship- the 1ac is a call for imperialism- a refusal to this call prevents the colonization of your mind and allows for real world pragmatism
Orr 2004 (Jackie, Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University, “The Militarization of Inner Space” Critical Sociology 30.2)

“Every American is a soldier” now, declared George W.
AND
might arrive in time for the fight for less terrorizing future spaces. 10

2
Will pass – ideological hints and piecemeal in worst case scenario
Sargent 10/18 (Greg, Plum Line Blog and Washington Post writer, “A way forward on immigration reform,” 10/18/13, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/18/a-way-forward-on-immigration-reform/)
Yesterday, President Obama declared he wants action on immigration reform “this year.”
AND
Hastert Rule) is the KIDS Act. The rest unfolds from there.
U.S. corn ethanol industry has massive lobbying power
Taxpayers for Common Sense 13 (“Political Footprint of the Corn Ethanol Lobby”, March 2013,http://www.taxpayer.net/images/uploads/downloads/Political_Footprint_of_the_Corn_Ethanol_Lobby_Final.pdf, accessed 7/25/13)

Thankfully some policymakers heeded our call to end wasteful subsidies for ethanol and successfully defeated
AND
first step in helping ensure policymaker decisions are based on merit, not muscle

Obama is spending PC and it is key
 Sink 10-15 – Staff writer for The Hill (Justin, “Obama to push immigration reform 'day after' budget deal, October 15 f 2013, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328747-obama-to-push-immigration-reform-day-after-budget-deal-reached

President Obama vowed Tuesday that he would pursue an immigration reform vote in the House
AND
a partisan pursuit" and passing a bill "would benefit both parties."

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

3
Froman will pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership now- it’s a fight and uninterrupted negotiations are key
Sekiguchi 13 (Toko, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Trade Representative Addresses Trade Conflicts With Japan Ahead Of TPP Brunei Talks, http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130819-704151.html, 8/19/13)

Top trade negotiators for Japan and the U.S. met on Monday to
AND
-standard, ambitious, comprehensive agreement that includes the elimination of tariffs."

Froman’s agenda is fragile- any new additions tradeoff with vital negotiations
Needham 13 (Vicki, reporter at the Hill, Froman warns lack of resources may stymie trade agenda, http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/312049-froman-warns-lack-of-resources-may-stymie-trade-agenda#ixzz2cf9UMngm, 7/18/13)

Michael Froman, the White House's top trade official, warned Congress on Thursday that
AND
-level standards for additional trade deals down the road, Froman said.
TPP crucial to Japanese relations
Goto 9/6 (SHIHOKO, Northeast Asia associate of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Asia Program in Washington. She was formerly senior business correspondent at United Press International, The trade deal that can't afford to be derailed, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2013/09/06/Outside-View-The-trade-deal-that-cant-afford-to-be-derailed/UPI-62561378440180/#ixzz2e7vbOD00)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe certainly has staked his political future into the success of
AND
a bilateral agreement between Japan and the United States.
US/Japan relations solves the most likely scenario for nuclear war
Nye et al., Former Deputy Secretary of State, 2K
Joseph S. Nye, Professor @ The John F. Kennedy School of Government @ Harvard University, Former Deputy Secretary of State, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Richard L. Armitage, Former Deputy Secretary of State, Michael J. Green, Advisor and Japan Chair @ The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Associate Professor @ The Walsh School of Foreign Service, Kurt M. Campbell, Fellow @ The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Frank Jannuzi, Minority Staff Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Edward J. Lincoln, Fellow @ The Brookings Institution, “The United States and Japan: Advancing Toward a Mature Partnership,” The Institute for National Strategic Studies, October 11th 2000, http://homepage2.nifty.com/moru/lib/nichibei-anpo/pdf/INSS20Special20Report.pdf 

Asia, in the throes of historic change, should carry major weight in the
AND
. to affect the security environment from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf. 

4
No Cuban Appeasement in the squo – laundry list of obstacles
Haven 6/21/13 (Paul, Associated Prices, NY Times, “Cuba, US try talking, but face many obstacles”, http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130621/NEWS05/130629930/cuba-us-try-talking-but-face-many-obstacles#full_story)

To be sure, there is still far more that separates the long-time
AND
against the Cuban people, and respect basic human rights,” he said.
The plan appeases Cuba through economic engagement which causes aggression
Ruben 11 (Jennifer, Washington Post, 10/18/2011, Obama’s Cuba appeasement, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/obamas-cuba-appeasement/2011/03/29/gIQAjuL2tL_blog.html)

The administration’s conduct is all the more galling given the behavior of the Castro regime
AND
to throw gifts to tyrants in the expectation they will reciprocate in kind.

Appeasement causes global aggression and multiple scenarios for conflict.
Chapin and Hanson, 12/7/2009 (Bernard - interviewer and Victor Davis - Martin and Illie Anderson senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Change, weakness, disaster, p. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/change-weakness-disaster-obama-answers-from-victor-davis-hanson/)

BC: Are we currently sending a message of weakness to our foes and allies
AND
tiger and now no one quite knows whom it will bite or when.

5
Text: The government of Cuba should meet the conditions necessary for the embargo to be lifted.
The CP results in lifting the embargo- doesn’t link to appeasement
PC 12 (pro-con.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity Archived in 2012 and 2008 by the Library of Congress for having "materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people" and Won the "Top 25 Free Reference Websites of 2011" award from a division of the American Library Association along with TED, Google, and Wikileaks and Honored in the US Congressional Record on July 6, 2011 by Congressman Rob Andrews (D-NJ) who said our "unbiased and truthful presentation makes a tremendous contribution to the political system.”
And Earned status as a "Valued Partner" and "Partner in Trust" by Guidestar in 2009 and Used by 11 governments (Australia, Egypt, European Union, Israel, New Zealand, Northern Marianas, Palestinian Territories, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States) including 22 US states and seven federal agencies, Should the United States Maintain Its Embargo against Cuba?, http://cuba-embargo.procon.org/, from data cited has to be at least from 2012)

The United States should maintain the Cuba embargo because Cuba has not met the conditions
AND
in Cuba when he took power, will be tolerated. 59

Tournament: St Marks | Round: 3 | Opponent: CE Byrd | Judge: Derek Liles
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

The position of the Slave is the essential starting point for analysis of social systems
Tibbs Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University College of Law and Woods Assistant Professor of Criminology, Sonoma State University 2008 Donald F. and Tryon P. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 7 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 235 lexis 

Slavery is the indispensable starting point for our inquiry into the kind of state violence
AND
the freedom to enslave others, was crucial to European overseas expansion. n65

Their view of embodiment constructs a spectacular Black body that reproduces white superiority
Yancy, 2005 (George, Professor of Philosophy @ Duquesne University “Whiteness and the Return of the Black Body” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 19.4 Project Muse)

African-American philosopher Charles Johnson notes that one can become blind to seeing other
AND
subjectivity is turned inside out like a shirtcuff. (1993, 603)

Recognition of the object status of the slave is key – the presence of the object disarticulates the system of anti-blackness and is ignorant towards violence
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg 38-44)

Ronald Judy's book (Dis)Forming the American Canon: African- Arabic Slave
AND
of the warden, are both without limit in their capacity for transgression.

Tournament: Umich | Round: 1 | Opponent: New Trier | Judge: Yao Yao Liu
Obama’s political capital can sway vulnerable GOP members to vote for Immigration Reform
Sun Sentinel, Editorial Board, 10/28

For those who thought the end of the government shutdown would provide a respite to
AND
often get in the way of our Washington representatives doing the right thing.

Mexico Energy Cooperation causes controversial amendment attempts and political fights on unrelated issues
CFR Senior Staff Oversight Report, 12 (Committee Foreign Relations Oversight Study, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, requested senior professional staff members to review opportunities for enhanced U.S.-Mexico engagement on oil and gas issues including the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Agreement, which requires Congressional action to take effect. As part of that review, members of Senator Lugar's staff traveled to Mexico City in October 2012 to meet with then President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto's transition team and leaders from the Mexican Congress, PEMEX, the Mexican energy regulator Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos, U.S. industry, academic specialists, and U.S. officials at Embassy Mexico City.\1\ This report contains their public findings and Recommendations, 12/21, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-112SPRT77567/html/CPRT-112SPRT77567.htm)

The Transboundary Agreement (TBA) provides a bilateral basis upon which both countries can
AND
the TBA itself, thus possibly miring the TBA in other political fights.

CIR’s critical to economic growth---multiple internals
Klein 13 Ezra is a columnist for The Washington Post. “To Fix the U.S. Economy, Fix Immigration,” 1/29, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/to-fix-the-u-s-economy-fix-immigration.html
Washington tends to have a narrow view of what counts as “economic policy.”
AND
influx of foreign-born students is the most obvious solution you’ll find.

US economic decline makes global nuclear war likely
O’Hanlon and Lieberthal 12 Michael O’Hanlon, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, specializing in defense and foreign policy issues. Kenneth Lieberthal, Ph.D., is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at Brookings. “The real national security threat: America's debt,” July 3, LA Times Op-Ed, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/03/opinion/la-oe-ohanlon-fiscal-reform-20120703
Lastly, American economic weakness undercuts U.S. leadership abroad. Other countries
AND
regions will likely become less stable. Major war will become more likely.

1NC
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).

Vote negative
a) Limits –conditionality forces the aff to find deals that topic countries would accept
b) Ground – unconditionality prevents us from having core arguments on the topic like say no and backlash
c) The combination of all possible unconditional affs makes it impossible to be neg . 

1NC
Obama’s balancing environmental and industry concerns by approving Keystone and power plant regs- that averts a political backlash from environmentalists
Killough 6-26 – Ashley Killough, CNN reporter, June 26th, 2013, and#34;Obama wants limits on coal plants, says Keystone canand#39;t boost pollutionand#34; www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/obama-climate-change
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama unveiled an aggressive new climate change strategy
AND
countries to work together to fight the and#34;global threat of our time.and#34;

Obama’s pulling back offshore drilling- it’s a bargaining chip- the plan angers environmentalists
John Wojick 10, Editor, People’s World, 12/2/10, “Environmentalists hail Obama curb on offshore drilling,” http://www.peoplesworld.org/environmentalists-hail-obama-curb-on-offshore-drilling/
The Obama administration announced yesterday that it was withdrawing plans for expanding oil drilling in
AND
on environmental issues, as Republicans exercise their increased clout on Capitol Hill.

Keystone’s vulnerable- appeasing the environmental base’s key to passage
Andrew Restuccia 13, Politico energy reporter, former energy and environmental reporter for The Hill, 2/8/13, “Can Obama pair Keystone, climate action?,” Politico, http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=4F387968-2B0B-43D8-9A84-C55EB3FC76E0
Of course, a Keystone approval is far from a done deal. With climate
AND
already laying the groundwork to stifle environmentalists’ outcry if he approves the pipeline.

Canada would backlash if Keystone dies because of political fights-~--destroys relations
NYT 2-17 – New York Times, 2/17/13, “Obama Faces Risks in Pipeline Decision,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/business/energy-environment/obamas-keystone-pipeline-decision-risks-new-problems-either-way.html?pagewanted=alland_r=1and#hTiaTri,1
Mr. Obama’s recent expressions of concern about climate change contrast starkly with Mr.
AND
that the decision is made on noise, there will be extreme disappointment.”

Canadian relations solve global nuclear war
Lamont, 94 Lansing, national political correspondent for Time Magazine’s Washington bureau from 1961-1968, chief Canada correspondent and United Nations bureau chief from 1971-1975, member of the Council on Foreign Relations  “Breakup: The coming end of Canada and the stakes for America”, 1994, p. 233-5
Of graver import would be the will and capability of Canada itself to continue supporting
AND
situations the usual safeguards are sometimes apt to be disregarded or even removed.

1NC
Text:  The governments of the United States and Mexico will agree to never drill in the gap area of the Gulf of Mexico.   The governments of the United States and Mexico will enter into energy cooperation over oil and gas, electricity transmission, and climate change and renewables.  

We can do energy cooperation without drilling – solves relations and PEMEX
Wood, 3/13/2012 (Duncan, Director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “Growing Potential for U.S.-Mexico Energy Cooperation” Wilson Center http://wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/wood_energy.pdf)

Looking ahead to the next six years of interaction between governments of Mexico and the
AND
S. in areas such as pricing, regulation and industry best practices.

1NC
The affirmative is a search for the next hydrocarbon “El Dorado”. Hydrocarbons impact our social and material reality and the aff continues biophysical violence against the environment and political violence against the body politic
Watts 99 (Michael, Professor of Geography and Director of the Institute of International Studies
at the University of California, Berkeley. He has a longstanding interest in agrarian change and rural
development in Africa, South Asia and California, but has also conducted research on environmental movements and the political ecology of development, Petro-Violence: Some Thoughts on Community, Extraction, and Political Ecology, http://faculty.unlv.edu/wjsmith/smithtest/wsmithWattsPetroViolence.pdf, 1999)

I want to offer some thoughts on the violence that so often attends particular sorts
AND
its all-encompassing power, and as the lifeline to hydrocarbon civilization. 

Oil’s impact on our social relations results in a biopolitical regime of death that perpetuates bare life and endless violence- peak oil ensures they can’t get offense
Watts 12 (Michael, Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, A Tale of Two Gulfs: Life, Death, and Dispossession along Two Oil Frontiers, p. 438-439)

Another line of reasoning—Michael Klare’s new book The Race for What’s Left (
AND
as I show, a regime of death, of bare life.8

The alternative is to vote negative to unimagine petrostates in political geographies. Rejection of the 1AC’s imagination of new petrostate communities unravels the community of violence perpetuated by hydrocarbons
Watts 4 (Michael J., Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, Antinomies of Community: Some Thoughts on Geography, Resources and Empire, JSTOR, p. 212-213)

Petro-capitalism in Nigeria operates through a particular sort of oil complex that is
AND
the complex geographies of and#39;communities of violenceand#39; in contemporary Nigeria ... or Iraq.

Tournament: Umich | Round: 6 | Opponent: Mona Shores | Judge: Ryan Keenan
1NC
Will pass – ideological hints and piecemeal in worst case scenario
Sargent 10/18 (Greg, Plum Line Blog and Washington Post writer, “A way forward on immigration reform,” 10/18/13, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/18/a-way-forward-on-immigration-reform/)
Yesterday, President Obama declared he wants action on immigration reform “this year.”
AND
Hastert Rule) is the KIDS Act. The rest unfolds from there.
Economic engagement with Mexico is politically divisive despite supporters
Wilson 13 – Associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International. Center for Scholars (Christopher E., January, “A U.S.-Mexico Economic Alliance: Policy Options for a Competitive Region,” http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/new_ideas_us_mexico_relations.pdf)

At a time when Mexico is poised to experience robust economic growth, a manufacturing
AND
action to support regional exporters more politically divisive than it ought to be. 

Obama is spending PC and it is key
 Sink 10-15 – Staff writer for The Hill (Justin, “Obama to push immigration reform 'day after' budget deal, October 15 f 2013, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328747-obama-to-push-immigration-reform-day-after-budget-deal-reached

President Obama vowed Tuesday that he would pursue an immigration reform vote in the House
AND
a partisan pursuit" and passing a bill "would benefit both parties."

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

1NC
Economic engagement is a conditional QPQ
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).
Vote negative
a) Limits – policies the embargo means there’s a near-infinite range of “one exception” affs – conditionality forces the aff to find deals that Mexico would accept and solvency advocates for all of those deals
b) Ground – unconditional engagement denies us “say no” and backlash arguments which are a crucial part of the engagement debate
1NC
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young student at Columbia University in New York there was a
AND
foundation of the close reading of feature films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, and cultural formations organic to the United States—
AND
U.S. national formation, civil society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great leveler of the black subject's positionality. The black American subject
AND
reparation) but that must, nonetheless, be pursued to the death.

The position of the Slave is the essential starting point for analysis of social systems
Tibbs Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University College of Law and Woods Assistant Professor of Criminology, Sonoma State University 2008 Donald F. and Tryon P. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 7 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 235 lexis 

Slavery is the indispensable starting point for our inquiry into the kind of state violence
AND
the freedom to enslave others, was crucial to European overseas expansion. n65

1NC
Text: The United States Congress should establish an independent commission empowered to submit to Congress recommendations for NGO engagement. Congress will allow 60 days to pass legislation overriding recommendations by a two-thirds majority. If Congress doesn’t vote within the specified period, those recommendations will become law. The Commission should recommend to Congress that the United States federal government should give internet access and training to all members of the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico and all other indigenous groups in Mexico.
The commission is feasible and solves the aff
Daremblum 8 (Jaime, University of Costa Rica (LL.B.) with honors, and obtained his Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, and Ph.D. at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, What Obama should do about latin America, http://american.com/archive/2008/november-11-08/what-obama-should-do-about-latin-america/)

Across Latin America, people are celebrating the election of Barack Obama. Even though
AND
energize the many Latin American officials who are so excited about his presidency.
Will pass and doesn’t drain capital
Mayer ’07 (Kenneth,- professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison  “THE BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE PROCESS: IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE RATIONAL POLICY?”) 

The conventional wisdom was that legislators, facing increasing deficits and budget rules that were
AND
taking opportunities. None of the disapproval resolutions came anywhere close to passing.

Tournament: Wake Forest | Round: Doubles | Opponent: Niles West | Judge:
1NC
Syria means Debt Ceiling Will Pass
Reuters 8/28/13 (“Syria military action could lower temperature in U.S. budget battles,” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-usa-fiscal-syria-idUSBRE97R06020130828)
Possible U.S. military strikes against Syria could cool the temperature of Washingtonand#39;s
AND
a budget analyst at the Cato Institute and a former Capitol Hill aide.

Mexico Energy Cooperation causes controversial amendment attempts and political fights on unrelated issues
CFR Senior Staff Oversight Report, 12 (Committee Foreign Relations Oversight Study, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, requested senior professional staff members to review opportunities for enhanced U.S.-Mexico engagement on oil and gas issues including the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Agreement, which requires Congressional action to take effect. As part of that review, members of Senator Lugarand#39;s staff traveled to Mexico City in October 2012 to meet with then President-elect Enrique Pena Nietoand#39;s transition team and leaders from the Mexican Congress, PEMEX, the Mexican energy regulator Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos, U.S. industry, academic specialists, and U.S. officials at Embassy Mexico City.\1\ This report contains their public findings and Recommendations, 12/21, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-112SPRT77567/html/CPRT-112SPRT77567.htm)

The Transboundary Agreement (TBA) provides a bilateral basis upon which both countries can
AND
the TBA itself, thus possibly miring the TBA in other political fights.

Obama has capital and it’s key to debt ceiling
Lanenkamp 7/13/13 (Andy, Global political analyst at ECR Research and Interest and Currency Consultants, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-langenkamp/obama-to-take-over-baton-_b_3571885.html)
Obamaand#39;s weakened hand reduces the chance that he can move the fiscal agenda forward.
AND
with the goods and take more decisive action than they have hitherto done. 

Debt freeze sparks food crisis
Min ‘10 (David, Associate Director for Financial Markets Policy at the Center for American Progress, 2010 “The Big Freeze The Conservative Pledge to Freeze the Debt Ceiling Is a Looming Disaster”, 10/28/10, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/10/big_freeze.html)

A freeze on the debt ceiling could erode confidence in U.S. Treasury
AND
while potentially triggering greater global instability—perhaps even a global economic depression. 

Global war
Brown ’09 (Lester, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, “The Geopolitics of Food Scarcity”, 2-11, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,606937-2,00.html)

The deteriorating world food situation is not occurring in a vacuum: it comes at
AND
is not the concentration of power but its absence that now threatens us. 

1NC
Economic engagement is a subset of conditional engagement and implies a tit-for-tat exchange
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists of a set of objectives, a strategy for
AND
105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).

Vote negative
a) Limits –conditionality forces the aff to find deals that topic countries would accept
b) Ground – unconditionality prevents us from having core arguments on the topic like say no and backlash
c) The combination of all possible unconditional affs makes it impossible to be neg . 

1NC
Obama’s balancing environmental and industry concerns by approving Keystone and power plant regs- that averts a political backlash from environmentalists
Killough 6-26 – Ashley Killough, CNN reporter, June 26th, 2013, and#34;Obama wants limits on coal plants, says Keystone canand#39;t boost pollutionand#34; www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/obama-climate-change
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama unveiled an aggressive new climate change strategy
AND
countries to work together to fight the and#34;global threat of our time.and#34;

Obama’s pulling back offshore drilling- it’s a bargaining chip- the plan angers environmentalists
John Wojick 10, Editor, People’s World, 12/2/10, “Environmentalists hail Obama curb on offshore drilling,” http://www.peoplesworld.org/environmentalists-hail-obama-curb-on-offshore-drilling/
The Obama administration announced yesterday that it was withdrawing plans for expanding oil drilling in
AND
on environmental issues, as Republicans exercise their increased clout on Capitol Hill.

Keystone’s vulnerable- appeasing the environmental base’s key to passage
Andrew Restuccia 13, Politico energy reporter, former energy and environmental reporter for The Hill, 2/8/13, “Can Obama pair Keystone, climate action?,” Politico, http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=4F387968-2B0B-43D8-9A84-C55EB3FC76E0
Of course, a Keystone approval is far from a done deal. With climate
AND
already laying the groundwork to stifle environmentalists’ outcry if he approves the pipeline.

Canada would backlash if Keystone dies because of political fights-~--destroys relations
NYT 2-17 – New York Times, 2/17/13, “Obama Faces Risks in Pipeline Decision,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/business/energy-environment/obamas-keystone-pipeline-decision-risks-new-problems-either-way.html?pagewanted=alland_r=1and#hTiaTri,1
Mr. Obama’s recent expressions of concern about climate change contrast starkly with Mr.
AND
that the decision is made on noise, there will be extreme disappointment.”

Canadian relations solve global nuclear war
Lamont, 94 Lansing, national political correspondent for Time Magazine’s Washington bureau from 1961-1968, chief Canada correspondent and United Nations bureau chief from 1971-1975, member of the Council on Foreign Relations  “Breakup: The coming end of Canada and the stakes for America”, 1994, p. 233-5
Of graver import would be the will and capability of Canada itself to continue supporting
AND
situations the usual safeguards are sometimes apt to be disregarded or even removed.

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Text:  The governments of the United States and Mexico will agree to never drill in the gap area of the Gulf of Mexico.   The governments of the United States and Mexico will enter into energy cooperation over oil and gas, electricity transmission, and climate change and renewables.  

We can do energy cooperation without drilling – solves relations and PEMEX
Wood, 3/13/2012 (Duncan, Director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “Growing Potential for U.S.-Mexico Energy Cooperation” Wilson Center http://wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/wood_energy.pdf)

Looking ahead to the next six years of interaction between governments of Mexico and the
AND
S. in areas such as pricing, regulation and industry best practices.

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The affirmative is a search for the next hydrocarbon “El Dorado”. Hydrocarbons impact our social and material reality and the aff continues biophysical violence against the environment and political violence against the body politic
Watts 99 (Michael, Professor of Geography and Director of the Institute of International Studies
at the University of California, Berkeley. He has a longstanding interest in agrarian change and rural
development in Africa, South Asia and California, but has also conducted research on environmental movements and the political ecology of development, Petro-Violence: Some Thoughts on Community, Extraction, and Political Ecology, http://faculty.unlv.edu/wjsmith/smithtest/wsmithWattsPetroViolence.pdf, 1999)

I want to offer some thoughts on the violence that so often attends particular sorts
AND
its all-encompassing power, and as the lifeline to hydrocarbon civilization. 

Oil’s impact on our social relations results in a biopolitical regime of death that perpetuates bare life and endless violence- peak oil ensures they can’t get offense
Watts 12 (Michael, Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, A Tale of Two Gulfs: Life, Death, and Dispossession along Two Oil Frontiers, p. 438-439)

Another line of reasoning—Michael Klare’s new book The Race for What’s Left (
AND
as I show, a regime of death, of bare life.8

The alternative is to vote negative to unimagine petrostates in political geographies. Rejection of the 1AC’s imagination of new petrostate communities unravels the community of violence perpetuated by hydrocarbons
Watts 4 (Michael J., Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, Antinomies of Community: Some Thoughts on Geography, Resources and Empire, JSTOR, p. 212-213)

Petro-capitalism in Nigeria operates through a particular sort of oil complex that is
AND
the complex geographies of and#39;communities of violenceand#39; in contemporary Nigeria ... or Iraq.

Tournament: Wake Forest | Round: 1 | Opponent: Groves | Judge: Will Caplan
1nc
Syria means Debt Ceiling Will Pass
Reuters 8/28/13 (“Syria military action could lower temperature in U.S. budget battles,” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-usa-fiscal-syria-idUSBRE97R06020130828)

Possible U.S. military strikes … former Capitol Hill aide.

The plan requires political capital
Pastor 3/28 (Robert, professor and founding director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, Shortcut to U.S. Economic Competitiveness: A Seamless North American Market, 3/28/13, http://www.cfr.org/competitiveness/shortcut-us-economic-competitiveness-seamless-north-american-market/p30132)

Forge a continental plan …transit borders without impediment.

Obama has capital and it’s key to debt ceiling
Lanenkamp 7/13/13 (Andy, Global political analyst at ECR Research and Interest and Currency Consultants, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-langenkamp/obama-to-take-over-baton-_b_3571885.html)

Obamaand#39;s weakened hand reduces …they have hitherto done. 

Debt default kills the economy
Schwarcz 8/14/13 (Steven L., Star Professor of Law and Business, and Founding Director, Duke Global Capital Markets Center, Duke University of School of Law, “Rollover Risk: Ideating a U.S. Debt Default,” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2307569)
A U.S. debt default would have both microeconomic and macroeconomic, or
AND
securities as riskier, and thus they demanded a higher interest rate.162

Extinction
Austin ‘09 (Michael, Resident Scholar – American Enterprise Institute, and Desmond Lachman, Resident Fellow – American Enterprise Institute, “The Global Economy Unravels”, Forbes, 3-6, http://www.aei.org/article/100187)
Conversely, global policymakers do not seem to have grasped the downside risks to the
AND
may be a series of small explosions that coalesce into a big bang. 

1nc
Interpretation – economic engagement requires expanding bilateral economic relations
Kahler, 6 - Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego (M., “Strategic Uses of Economic Interdependence: Engagement Policies on the Korean Peninsula and Across the Taiwan Strait” in Journal of Peace Research (2006), 43:5, p. 523-541, Sage Publications)

Economic engagement - a policy of deliberately expanding economic ties with an adversary in order
AND
great power politics and that it may be more widespread than previously recognized.
This means the plan has to be government-to-government – not private economic engagement
Daga, 13 - director of research at Politicas Publicas para la Libertad, in Bolivia, and a visiting senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation (Sergio, “Economics of the 2013-2014 Debate Topic:
U.S. Economic Engagement Toward Cuba, Mexico or Venezuela”, National Center for Policy Analysis, 5/15, http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Message_to_Debaters_6-7-13.pdf)

Economic engagement between or among countries can take many forms, but this document will
AND
some issues are more important with respect to some countries than to others.
‘Its’ is a possessive pronoun showing ownership
Glossary of English Grammar Terms, 2005  
(http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/possessive-pronoun.html) 

Mine, yours, his, hers…that it belongs to me.)

B. Violation – the plan enables Mexican private companies to engage with the united states

C. Voting issue –

1.  limits – a government limit is the only way to keep the topic manageable – otherwise they could use any 3rd party intermediary, lift barriers to private engagement, or target civil society – it makes topic preparation impossible

2. negative ground – formal governmental channels are key to predictable relations disads and counterplans that test ‘engagement’

3. at best they’re effectually topical—they remove a barrier to promote trade which may or may not have an effect of improved bilateral relations—infinite number of internal link chains which have the effect of engagement makes negative preparedness impossible

1nc
The affirmative has reinscribed racist social relations with Latin America- differentiating between different groups and putting Mexico in the position of the dependent is the same colonialist logic that drove exploitation of indigenous populations
Quijano 2K (Anibal, Sociologist and humanist thinker, PhD from UNMSM in Peru, Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism,¶ and Latin America” pg 533 – 537) 

What is termed globalization is the culmination of a process that began with the constitution
AND
two elements appeared naturallyassociated. Until¶ now, this strategyhas been exceptionallysuccessful.

Reinscribing racial dominance makes extinction inevitable
Barndt, 1991 (Joseph, co-director of Crossroads, an organization that focuses on addressing racism, Dismantling Racism, p.155-6)
To study racism is to study walls. We have looked at barriers and fences
AND
of the world and ourselves, we dare not allow it to continue.  

The alternative is to vote negative to reject the Eurocentrism and engage in critical border thinking. Only redefining citizenship from the location of the subaltern can we challenge colonialism and reconceptualize economic relations
Grosfoguel 11 (Ramon, Associate Professor of  Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Berkeley, Post-Doctoral, Fernand Braudel Center/Maison des Sciences de l‘Homme, Paris, France, 1993-4¶ PhD, Sociology, Temple University, 1992¶ MA, Urban Studies, Temple Univerisity, 1986¶ BA, Sociology, University of Puerto Rico, 1979, “Decolonizing Pol Econ and Postcolonial”,
http://www.dialogoglobal.com/granada/documents/Grosfoguel-Decolonizing-Pol-Econ-and-Postcolonial.pdf) 

One of many plausible solutions to the Eurocentric versus fundamentalist ¶ dilemma is what Walter
AND
how to transcend the ¶ imperial monologue established by the European-centric modernity

1NC
Our interpretation is that the affirmative should disclose their case before the debate

They didn’t- that’s bad-

1. Clash- neg gets no preround prep- everything is thrown off after the 1AC- destroys rejoinder, mooting any educational advantage to debate

2. Fairness- non-disclosure skews side bias towards the aff on an already aff biased topic- they have specific internal links and link turns but the neg has no ground

3. Research- disclosure forces them to research an aff that is winnable even if they disclose it- research is a portable skill- allows real world education

1NC
Text: The relevant agency should engage in a benefit-cost analysis of increasing its economic engagement toward Mexico by providing all necessary funding for the expansion of the North American Development Bank and implement the outcome if the analysis determines that the project has a positive value.

CP solves the aff and it competes
NSTPRSC 7 (National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, Analysis of Future Issues and Changing Demands on the System, http://transportationfortomorrow.com/final_report/volume_3_html/technical_issues_papers/paper8fcc.htm?name=4k_05, 1/10/7) *Note- BCA=Benefit-Cost Analysis

BCA measures the value of direct benefits and costs of a project or program even
AND
improvements, and reduced vehicle operating cost would be double-counting benefits.

BCA process in transportation investment spills over to better analysis throughout the government
Istrate and Puentes 10 (Emilia Istrate, senior research associate and associate fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution, Ph.D. Public Policy, George Mason University, specialization in regional economic development, and holds graduate degrees in international studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); and Robert Puentes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and Director of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative, M.P., University of Virginia, B.S. Old Dominion University; “Investing for success,” US Infrastructure, Issue 3, Q1 2010, http://www.americainfra.com/article/Investing-for-success/)

From time to time, collapsed bridges, failed dams and ruptured water pipes remind
AND
not necessarily new or singular, two ideas have garnered considerable attention lately. 

That’s key to solve a litany of existential risks- they are inevitable absent the CP
Roberts 8 (Patrick S. Roberts, Fellow with the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University, Assistant Professor with the Center for Public Administration and Policy in the School for Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, Ph.D. in government from the University of Virginia and former postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, “Catastrophe: Risk and Response,” Homeland Security Affairs, 4(1), Jan 2008, http://www.hsaj.org/pages/volume4/issue1/pdfs/4.1.5.pdf)

Posner makes a persuasive case that the risk of global catastrophe is growing. Some
AND
help discipline the unavoidably messy process of deciding which risks to prepare for.

1nc
Latin American anti-neoliberal movements are growing now- these spill over globally but the plan reifies neoliberalism’s grasp by insisting on US led economic cooperation. The alternative is to vote neg to de-link Latin America from neoliberalism. This is key to tear down neoliberalism
Harris 8 (Richard L Harris: Professor of Global Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay; Managing Editor of the Journal of Developing Societies (SAGE India); and Coordi¬ nating Editor of Latin American Perspectives (SAGE USA). “Latin America’s Response to Neoliberalism and Globalization,” http://www.nuso.org/upload/articulos/3506_2.pdf)
The economic, political and social development of the Latin American and Caribbean countries is
AND
model of uneven and inequitable development that has pillaged most of the region. 

Neoliberalism drives extinction-~--tech and reforms fail
Richard A. Smith 7, Research Associate at the Institute for Policy Research and Development, UK; PhD in History from UCLA, June 2007, “The Eco-suicidal Economics of Adam Smith,” Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 22-43
In the midst of the record-breaking heat wave in the summer of 2003
AND
and#34;endless technical adjustments;and#34; thus no further theoretical thought is required.and#34;27

Tournament: Wake Forest | Round: 5 | Opponent: Chattahooche | Judge: Lincoln Garrett
1NC
Syria means Debt Ceiling Will Pass
Reuters 8/28/13 (“Syria military action could lower temperature in U.S. budget battles,” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-usa-fiscal-syria-idUSBRE97R06020130828)
Possible U.S. military strikes …. a former Capitol Hill aide.

The plan requires political capital
Pastor 3/28 (Robert, professor and founding director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, Shortcut to U.S. Economic Competitiveness: A Seamless North American Market, 3/28/13, http://www.cfr.org/competitiveness/shortcut-us-economic-competitiveness-seamless-north-american-market/p30132)

Forge a continental plan for …. borders without impediment.

Obama has capital and it’s key to debt ceiling
Lanenkamp 7/13/13 (Andy, Global political analyst at ECR Research and Interest and Currency Consultants, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-langenkamp/obama-to-take-over-baton-_b_3571885.html)
Obamaand#39;s weakened hand reduces …. they have hitherto done. 

Debt default kills the economy
Schwarcz 8/14/13 (Steven L., Star Professor of Law and Business, and Founding Director, Duke Global Capital Markets Center, Duke University of School of Law, “Rollover Risk: Ideating a U.S. Debt Default,” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2307569)
A U.S. debt default …….demanded a higher interest rate.162

1NC
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 and#34;…..better to define the word.
Engagement and Appeasement are distinct strategies
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)

The term “rogue state,” ….. rollback, and non-entanglement.

Economic engagement is a conditional QPQ
Shinn 96 James Shinn, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia at the CFR in New York City and director of the council’s multi-year Asia Project, worked on economic affairs in the East Asia Bureau of the US Dept of State, “Weaving the Net: Conditional Engagement with China,” pp. 9 and 11, google books
In sum, conditional engagement consists ….. Science Quarterly 105, no. 3 (1990), pp. 383-88).

Engagement requires DIRECT talks – means both governments must be involved
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 ….. policies and its behavior.

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

3. Embargo spec- independent voting issue- they didn’t say what parts of the embargo they reduce- kills negative PIC ground because they say “nearly all” takes it out- key to in depth plan education

1NC
Text: The United States federal government should phase out the Helms-Burton Act except for restrictions on ethanol.

1NC
Text: The Director of the Department of State should issue and publish in the Code of Federal Regulations a policy memorandum that relevant United States entities should remove nearly all of the Helms Burton Act.

Competes -~-- policy statements do not make law -~-- they’re legally distinct from the plan because they’re only position-taking
Koch 5 (Charles H. Jr., Professor of Law – William and Mary School of Law, “Policymaking by the Administrative Judiciary”, Alabama Law Review, Spring, 56 Ala. L. Rev. 693, Lexis)

n110 E.g., Consol Edison Co of ….. the public, nor the agency
The practical effect is identical to binding law -~-- memo sends a signal of the plan and agencies will comply
Hunnicutt 99 (James, JD – Boston College Law School, “Another Reason to Reform the Federal Regulatory System: Agenciesand#39; Treating Nonlegislative Rules as Binding Law”, Boston College Law Review, December, 41 B.C. L. Rev 153, Lexis)

Rules created without process--….. given up on the appeals process. 156

CP’s process violates the APA and undermines administrative law -~-- perm doesn’t solve because it acts in accordance with legislation
Anthony 92 (Robert A., Foundation Professor of Law – George Mason University School of Law, “Interpretive Rules, Policy Statements, Guidances, Manuals, And The Like -- Should Federal Agencies Use Them To Bind The Public?”, Duke Law Journal, June, 41 Duke L.J. 1311, Lexis)

With one exception, the ….. problem addressed by this Article.

Spills over
Kalen 8 (Sam, Visiting Assistant Professor – Penn State University, “The Transformation of Modern Administrative Law: Changing Administrations and Environmental Guidance Documents”, Ecology Law Quarterly, 35 Ecology L.Q. 657, Lexis)

Early in the opinion, Judge Randolph …. Code of Federal Regulations. 85

It’s unique -~-- nonlegislative guidance is limited now
Raso 10 (Connor R., JD – Yale Law School and Ph.D. in Political Science – Stanford University, “Strategic or Sincere? Analyzing Agency Use of Guidance Documents”, The Yale Law Journal, January, 119 Yale L.J. 782, Lexis)

This Note first outlines ….. commonly abuse guidance documents.

Administrative law crushes agency progressivism -~-- CP’s key to check the executive
Strauss 11 (Peter, Not David Paul, Betts Professor of Law – Columbia Law School, “The APA at 65- Is Reform Needed to Create Jobs, Promote Economic Growth and Reduce Costs?”, Congressional Documents and Publications, 2-28, Lexis)

As you may know, ….federal regulation and deregulation. n3 

APA power is bad – props-up the worst forms of executive privilege specifically in foreign affairs.
Wirth ‘93
David A. Wirth – Assistant Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University – American University Journal of International Law and Policy – Fall, 1993 – lexis 

A great deal can ….. context for decision making.
Excessive Power in this regard is bad – causes massive violence.
Rockwell 96 – Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., president of the Mises Institute, editor of LewRockwell.com, 1996, “Down With the Presidency,” http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/prez.html

The presidency is seemingly …. must be reduced to kindling.

1NC
The grammar of civil society seeks to ignore and exclude past atrocities.   You must hold them accountable.  The only ethical act that can be taken in this civil society is that of the Savage or the Slave.  This sets the state for all other interrogations and paves the way for ontological suffering.
Wilderson III, 2010 (Frank B., Prof of African American studies and drama @ UC Irvine, Red White and Black:  Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms Pg. 1-5)

WHEN I WAS a young …… films and political theory that follows.

Civil societies reliance on white supremacy is the basis for genocide, ontological violence based on the penal system, and the eradication of the non-white other.  It outweighs all impacts.
Rodriguez, summer 2008 (Dylan, Prof of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside, “Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Globality of the U.S. Prison Regime” The Scholar and Feminist Online http://sfonline.barnard.edu/immigration/print_drodriguez.htm)

White supremacist social, economic, … society building, and globality.
The alternative is to refuse the 1ac to death.  Each affirmation allows civil society more coherence than the alt alone.  
Wilderson III 2007 (Frank B. Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama at UC Irvine, Warfare in the American Homeland-Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy Edit By James Joy, Pg 31-33)

Slavery is the great ….. be pursued to the death.