Public Forum
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Death to the Grid? Analysis of the September-October PF Topic
A discussion about the Public Forum September-October Topic, “Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.”
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Analysis: The Role of U.S. Intervention Against Authoritarianism
Read about how to debate the new Public Forum topic, “Resolved: The United States is justified in using force to remove authoritarian leaders from power,” for the 2026 National Speech and Debate Tournament.
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Analysis: The Impacts of Presidential Unilateralism on US Power Projection and Reliability
Trump’s erratic policy decisions and statements have driven deep wedges between allies, attracted criticism from leaders around the world, and eroded the moral authority of the US. The negative consequences of his words and actions stem from an abuse of power in the form of…
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Analysis: The Role of Unilateral Executive Deployments in Creating “Forever Wars”
When it comes to war, the Constitution is very clear: only Congress has the power to declare war. Still, this “limitation” allows the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to direct the military to operate.
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Iranian Minab Girls’ School Destroyed in Strike, Killing Hundreds
The Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school was a two-story building housing girls aged 7 to 12. It was decimated during the strike, killing between 165 and 180 people, a majority of whom were children attending the school.
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American Refueling Plane Crashes in Iraq
On Friday, amid rising tensions with Iran, six United States service members were killed when their KC-135 refueling plane crashed in Western Iraq. The American death toll in the Iran war has now risen to 13.
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PF Topic Analysis: Presidential War Powers vs Congress’s Role
The current topic covers a wide range of time periods: past, present, and future. In order to gain a better understanding of this topic, debaters should explore topics such as presidential unilateralism and constitutional debates over presidential war powers.
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The Death of “America First” Through Trump’s Waging War on Iran
Though it has been speculated that if a recession ensues, the Trump Administration could utilize resources from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the current inventory of the reserve is only roughly 415 million barrels of oil, which would likely be outstripped by these economic offsets. Despite the American people supporting…
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PF Topic Analysis: China’s International Mining on the Global Playscape
China dominates the natural resource extraction industry. Audrey Han provides aff and neg argument ideas for the Jan/Feb PF topic.
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Analysis: Dependency on China and the Impacts of Stopping Chinese Resource Extraction
China leads the world in extracting and processing many crucial natural resources, especially rare earth elements (REEs). However, while much of the world is heavily reliant on China for REMs, the dependency is mutual.
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PF Topic Analysis: The War Between Cybersecurity and National Security
The new PF November/December topic is a matter of balancing message security and encryption with the growing need for national security. Audrey Han provides a topic analysis for the affirmative & negative sides of the resolution.