NPDL-TOC 2026 Topics & Announcements

SEMIS

Topic Strikes in Room: 2:40pm

  1. This House prefers California’s plural executive model to New Jersey’s unified executive model. INFOSLIDE: In California, top executive officers (attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, insurance commissioner, superintendent of public instruction) are directly elected. In New Jersey, top executive officers are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate.

  2. This House regrets the use of English as India’s lingua franca.

  3. The US federal government should normalize diplomatic relations with the Taliban government of Afghanistan.

QUARTERS

Topic Strikes in Room: 10:50am

  1. This House regrets the rise of de-extinction efforts. INFOSLIDE: De-extinction efforts refer to scientific attempts to recreate or revive extinct species using technologies such as genetic engineering, cloning, or selective breeding. These efforts often involve modifying the DNA of closely related living species to approximate traits of extinct animals.

  2. The US federal government should give military aid to the Sudanese military to combat The Rapid Support Forces.

  3. This House believes that the desire to affirm one’s moral self-image is a more significant driver of ideological identification than is material self-interest.

Octos

Topic Strikes in Room: 8:45am

  1. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s kingpin strategy against organized criminal groups in Mexico will do more harm than good. INFOSLIDE: A kingpin strategy describes attempts to arrest or kill high-ranking officials within criminal organizations. Mexico has recently pursued this approach, most notably with the killing of ‘El Mencho.’

  2. The US federal government should significantly decrease restrictions on human gene editing.

  3. This House regrets the decline of Confucianism in East Asia.

Round 7

Topic Strikes in Room: 7:15pm

  1. The US federal government should mandate the separation of investment banking from commercial banking. INFOSLIDE: The Glass-Steagall Act (1933) banned banks that hold customer deposits from also engaging in investment activities such as stock trading. The Financial Services Modernization Act, a.k.a the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999), lifted this ban.

  2. A society where most of the economy is run through democratic central planning would be better than a society where most of the economy consists of worker cooperatives interacting with one another via market exchange.

  3. On balance, participation in competitive debate teaches high school students to change the world for the better.

Round 6

Topic Strikes in Room: 4:50pm

  1. This House believes in Robert Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Property.
    INFOSLIDE: Nozick’s theory posits that a person may justly own a piece of property if and only if (1) that property was justly acquired by its initial owner; (2) it passed on to the current owner through a chain of voluntary exchanges or gifts; (3) any violation of the first two conditions was rectified by just compensation.

  2. The European Union should impose targeted sanctions on Uganda over the detention of opposition leader Bobi Wine.

  3. The professionalization of activism has done more harm than good for social movements in the United States.

Round 5

Topic Strikes in Room: 2:15pm

  1. This House prefers that artificial general intelligence, if it is achieved, be aligned with virtue ethics rather than utilitarianism. INFOSLIDE: Virtue ethics evaluates actions based on the character traits they reflect, emphasizing qualities like honesty, courage, and compassion. Utilitarianism evaluates actions based on their consequences, aiming to maximize overall well-being. AGI is an AI that matches or surpasses human capabilities across virtually all cognitive tasks.

  2. The US federal government should phase out the sales of all new vehicles with above-zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

  3. Rising oil prices do more harm than good.

Round 4

Topic Strikes in Room: 11:40am

  1. The Ujamaa policy in Tanzania did more harm than good.
    INFOSLIDE: Ujamaa policy was a form of cooperative socialism championed by Julius Nyerere. Key elements of Ujamaa policy included central democracy, nationalization of key industries, and a return to a subsistence lifestyle.

  2. A society that guarantees employment is preferable to a society that guarantees income.

  3. Mexico should resume its oil sales to Cuba.

Round 3

Topic Strikes in Room: 9:10am

  1. A geologist discovers large oil reserves in a poor country. The country was previously thought to lack significant natural resources and its economy was primarily agricultural. If the geologist does not report on the discovery, it is highly unlikely that the oil reserves will become known. This House, as the geologist, would not reveal their discovery of the oil reserves.

  2. This House, as an American voter in 1800, would vote for Thomas Jefferson over John Adams for President.

  3. It is in the best interest of Iran to pursue nuclear weapons.

Round 2

Topic Strikes in Room: 6:40pm

  1. Bosnia and Herzegovina should transition from a consociational system to a majoritarian democratic system. INFOSLIDE: A consociational system is a form of governance in which political power is distributed among distinct social groups—often through mechanisms like group representation and veto rights—while a majoritarian democratic system allocates decision-making power based primarily on majority rule, with fewer formal structures for group-based power-sharing.

  2. This House regrets the creation of the Albania-Croatia-Kosovo trilateral defence alliance.

  3. NATO military intervention in former Yugoslavia has done more harm than good.

Round 1

Topic Strikes in Room: 4:40pm

  1. This House regrets the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. INFOSLIDE: This act temporarily prohibited most individuals without Canadian citizenship or permanent residency status and corporations incorporated outside Canada from purchasing residential property. The ban took effect in 2023 and is scheduled to expire in 2027.

  2. State governments should impose financial penalties on local jurisdictions that fail to meet mandated housing development targets.

  3. In the United States, state governments should adopt social housing models in which the government directly builds and permanently owns a large share of housing stock.

NPDL TOPIC STRIKE PROCEDURES

Each round shall have three possible topics. Before the preparation period, teams shall strike topics as follows: The Opposition team shall strike one of the three topics, and then the Government team shall strike one of the remaining two.