November 2015 PF Topic

Resolved: In response to the current crisis, a government should prioritize the humanitarian
needs of refugees over its national interests.

PRO

CON

My partner and stand in firm affirmation of the

following Resolved: In response to the
current crisis, a government should prioritize
the humanitarian needs of refugees over its
national interests.

My partner and stand in firm negation of the

following Resolved: In response to the
current crisis, a government should prioritize
the humanitarian needs of refugees over its
national interests.

Humanitarian needs of refugees

National Interests

Framework:

Framework: A government does not have to

prioritize humanitarian needs of refugees over
national interests.

http://everydaydebate.blogspot.com/2015/
10/pf-nov-2015-prioritizinghumanitarian.html

http://everydaydebate.blogspot.com/2015/
10/pf-prioritizing-humanitarian-needsover.html

Possible economic benefits

The private sector is responding, therefore

there is no need for the government to
make the priority

Weigh the lives of people

Not all countries are equal, and some cant

handle taking in mass amounts of people
---economic
---social
Humanitarian aid and National interests
shouldnt conflict
Security Concerns

http://everydaydebate.blogspot.com/2015/10/pf-nov-2015-prioritizing-humanitarian.html
Definitions
1

November 2015 PF Topic

Refugee: a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country, as in time of
political upheaval, war, etc.
National Interest: a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural
Should: must; ought (used to indicate duty, propriety, or expediency)
Prioritize: to rank in accordance of order, privilege, or precedence of.
Observations/Background Info:
the current crisis
I think everyone knows that this term refers to the ongoing refugee crisis, as opposed to any
other distinct crisis (the Euro crisis, China's stock bubble, climate change, etc.).
This can be proven by appealing to the reference to refugees in the second half
of the resolution, and the fact the the NSDA topic area for this month is "Refugee and
Migrant Crisis."
The trouble comes when trying to pinpoint exactly what the current refugee crisis is. It is not only
events that happened since that Syrian boy was photographed dead on a Turkish beach. Not all
the refugees are from Syria, they are not all (or even mostly) going to Europe.
But with all that said, there are some aspects that unify an idea of the "current crisis." Events
like the ones happening now have been documented heavily since the very beginning of the
Arab Spring. (See: Branko Milanovic: "Who are the Harrage?" (2010); )
And they generally share the following attributes:
(1) The refugees come from the Middle East and North Africa (mainly Syria, Iraq, and Libya).
While the Syrians and Iraqis have gone mainly to neighboring countries, the Libyans and others
have gone mainly to Southern Europe. (2) The influx has been outside of the normal purview of
the host countries' refugee structure (exorbitant waits, illegal entry, massive camps, etc.)
So the term "current crisis" can be understood to be "the post-Arab-Spring refugee crisis">
Response to the above:
Thats a very direct approach, I feel like Aff has a lot of room to define what the current crisis is.
You can call it climate refugees, or almost anything else. As long as you can show why your
'current crisis' is valid you can have a lot of fun with this resolutions ambiguity.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Debate/comments/3n63z6/a_more_easily_understandable_word
ing_of_this/
What do you think?

November 2015 PF Topic

The resolutions ambiguity allows the teams to define current crisis; how would you define it?

humanitarian needs
This could be considered a number of different things:
a. asylum
b. water
c. food
d. medical care
e. shelter

For more topic clarification:

http://everydaydebate.blogspot.com/2015/10/pf2015-11-refugees-intro.html

If youre still confused on any of the basics, check out this guide to PFD
http://www.pfdebate.com/uploads/NFL_Guide_to_PF.pdf