The National Federation of High Schools announced today that the finalists for the 2011-2012 policy debate topic are space and China. The resolutions are as follows:
SPACE
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.
CHINA
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement with the People’s Republic of China on one or more of the following issues: trade, economy, environment.
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement with the People’s Republic of China on one or more of the following issues: trade, currency, environment.
NOTE: The NFHS inadvertently released the 2010-2011 wording of the China topic, not the altered 2011-2012 wording.
The voting results from round one are below the fold.
Voting for the final resolution begins now and the winner will be announced on January 7th.
The phrase "one or more of the following issues: trade, economy, environment" is not limiting, because 'economy' is an all encompassing area when you are talking about "economic engagement."
The topic might as well read:
The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement with the People’s Republic of China.
They should have used the word 'currency.'
I really think it's too bad India didn't make it. India and SE Asia would have at least offered fresh topic ground.
China will be broad and a lot of retread, plus China is a huge part of each topic every year already.
That said, I hope the space voters have good reasons for supporting it – I fear that will be a year filled with stupid fanboy tech debates, and when a topic summary specifically says "the neg gets politics!!!! and timeframe defense!!!!" that says to me blatantly that the topic will be bereft of neg ground.
Also, Whit – there's a disconnect here. The NFL's synopses say "currency," not economy, but the NFHS announced "trade, economy, environment." Someone made an error. http://www.nflonline.org/uploads/Main/policysynop…
I really hope the space topic wins! I'm thinking of running a SETI case next year… anyone got any suggestions?