13 January 2026 Debate Brief
Read about the way China exploits the rare earth mineral supply chain and how to manipulate that connection (PF), common negative arguments for nuclear weapons (LD), and why Trump’s threats to Greenland are uniquely relevant today (CX).
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Analysis: Trump’s Threats to Greenland Give Pressing Uniqueness and Inherent Value to the Arctic Debate
President Trump has said that if he fails to take Greenland “the easy way,” then he will take it “the hard way.” This continued geopolitical uncertainty has multiple implications for arguments regarding the policy topic.
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Analysis: Arguments for Nuclear Weapons
While deterring great power conflict is an obvious point for LD’s nuclear weapons topic, arguments ranging from bioweapons disadvantage, asteroids, and defense spending are equally viable.
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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.