2023NHSDLC年度冠军赛辩题正式揭晓！

各位辩手大家好，自5月22日NHSDLC组委会开启2023年度冠军赛辩题投票通道后，热爱辩论的同学们、辩论前辈大咖以及各界裁判、教练都积极参与到了辩题投票活动中，在此由衷感谢所有人的参与！在为期三周的投票之后，2023NHSDLC年度冠军赛辩题终于尘埃落定！

经组委会统计，在本次辩题投票中，最终符合投票标准的有效票数为359张。其中「人道主义援助」、「碳排放税」、「美国社会福利计划」相关的三个辩题票数不相上下，最终下面这个辩题得票占总投票数28%，以微弱优势脱颖而出，成为2023年度冠军赛辩题！

*线上全国邀请赛与年度冠军赛同辩题

在过去的20年中 全球人道主义援助不论是频率还是资金 都有了长足的进步 然而围绕救援物资和资金的 腐败、浪费乃至恐怖主义活动也随之而来   由此，增加政治条件 究竟是应对人道主义种种挑战的良药 还是强国建立地区霸权的工具？ 一起来了解一下今年的辩题背景吧！  Topic Background

辩题背景

Humanitarian Aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, victims of natural disasters, wars and famines.

While the humanitarian aid sector has undergone tremendous growth in terms of its activities and funding in the past two decades, the international community continues to find challenges that severely undermine the effectiveness of the humanitarian aid and in some cases harming beneficiary communities more than it helps.

Examples from Yemen and Afghanistan proved that the potential of humanitarian aid being used for theft along with diversion for funding terrorism is extraordinarily high. In the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, it has been estimated that over $8.75 billion was lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.

Additionally, humanitarian aid may be distributed unequally due to gender, racial or ethnic inequality. Finally, long-term humanitarian aid may lead to donor-dependency in which the local government officials decide not to establish sustainable public policy for long term development but just rely on foreign aid.

This is why some argue Political Condition may help solve the problem. For debaters who participated in nationals in 2021, you probably remembered the discussion surrounding political conditions of IMF assistance and bailouts. IMF relief packages usually come with austerity measures or structural reform requirements that ask countries that receive assistance to reform their economic policies so that they will not always depend on IMF support.

Similarly, con side of this debate can argue political condition are necessary for transparent distribution of foreign aid, avoiding corruption and over dependency. On the other side, just like IMF conditions usually follow the western liberal economic model that may not be suitable for recepient countries with many also blaming conditions of humanitarian aid to be too western centered and politicalized.

Pro side can argue political condition of humanitarian aid is a tool for powerful countries to establish regional hegemon which only worsens the conflicts in those areas prolonging the suffering of people.

Areas of Discussion

辩题解析

Debaters can start from the following perspectives when preparing for the topic.

Perspective 1

Definition 定义

Whilst in previous seasons we had more or less specific object of discussion, the National’s topic is in some way more abstract. Debaters can start the research by looking for real-world examples of humanitarian aid, conditions attached to them and select a broad or narrow definition based on the interest of the side.

For example, con side can argue any condition, including requirement of disclosing distribution of foreign aid for transparency and should be regarded as a political condition as long as it is required by a political actor.

But pro side can argue that only conditions that are relevant to political interest should be regarded as political conditions.

Perspective 2

Morality 道德

This may be a good topic where debaters introduce principal arguments since the word "should" can be defined in "what is correct to do".

Pro side can take advantage of this definition and argue humanitarian aid should be administered on the principle of selfless assistance, not for political gain for the administering country.

Perspective 3

Utilitarian 功利主义

This is something most debaters are already familiar with. Both sides should find examples to prove political conditions allow better or worse implementation of humanitarian aid.

Perspective 4

Feasibility 可行性

After three seasons of cost benefit analysis (federal reserve, RTW and AI), we finally have a policy debate again. This means debaters shouldn’t only consider the pros and cons of political conditions but also how major actors in the topic may react to the policy.

Con side can talk about the disadvantages of political condition as it is one of the major incentives of foreign aid. After all, we are not living in a world with a lot of good Samaritan spirit requiring humanitarian aid without political conditions that will decrease the total amount of aid given.

Overall, this is an interesting topic that requires students to have deep understanding of real-world events and international relationships. Look forward to everyone’s performance this summer!

Citation  

1.https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/rethinking-humanitarian-aid

2.https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/3268.pdf

3.https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/war-and-humanitarian-aid

4.https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/02/1133687

看完了上面的辩题介绍你是否已经跃跃欲试，准备在国赛大显身手了？

当人道主义救援遭遇种种挑战 政治力量的介入到底是可以正本清源 还是会导致更多的撕裂和灾难？

2023NHSDLC年度冠军赛 让我们台上见真章！

2023 NHSDLC 年度冠军赛&线上全国邀请赛 报名火热进行中！

2023夏天，我们不见不散！