ARGogate

Hey everyone, as a policy-oriented debater, I've noticed a huge problem with heg debaters in the community. They. Are. Lazy. Most take the traditional stance of a single, monolithic concept of "hegemony" and assert that claim as if it solves everything when they read those recent cards. These are (usually) the same debaters who read offensive realism as a reason war is inevitable and argue that perception of US power solves. What? Perception solves structural incentives for aggression? Trouble is, nobody rises to beat down bad heg debaters anymore so they get away with a lot of crazy arguments. The solution? A whole new hegemony file that's ready for these silly "heg solves because Kagan/Brooks/Thayer/etc says so" debaters
 
Here's a comprehensive hegemony backfile featuring some of the most recent cards on the subject. Most of these cards are from 2011-2013 and are simply fantastic. The file includes both defensive and offensive arguments and is ideal for any level debater. This update/backfile also includes answers to the Brooks article and indicts for many common authors, such as Nye, Wohlforth, Brzezinski, etc. There are lots of cool tricks and mini-disads to read/extend in the block, so it's a must have even as a supplement for people who have better things to do than cut heg updates.
 
Yeah, I know, everyone has heg impact turns, what makes this one so special? Heg bad, multilateralism good, right? Not really, The main reason this file is different is that it includes a lot of differential analysis with regards to US dominance, primarily focused around offshore balancing, which is (in my opinion) one of the best transitions to read because it gets you out of a large part of heg good offense as well as disads to multilateralism, especially considering the fact that there aren't very good disadvantages to offshore balancing. Offshore balancing still allows for US dominance, but in a prescriptive context: instead of amassing the largest power differential imaginable, the US should focus on intelligence-gathering, naval power projection, and leaving countries to sort out some of their own problems with intervention only happening in the worst-case scenarios.
 
The heg resilient also takes a neat spin on the traditional argument. It's not the same "we have the biggest army, suck it" argument of the past. Rather, it's centered around the concept of relative decline, where the US loses military capability but retains influence. After all, what is hegemony? It's more than just having the bigger guns, it's about global perception and influence. This argument is great because it puts you in a position where you can read a lot of aff cards (Nye, etc) back at the affirmative.
 
Either way, as a supplement or if you want a new spin on an old argument, this file is a great buy. It's almost completely highlighted, and fully blocked out for the 2NC/1NR.
 
TOC:
 
Hegemony. 2
Top Shelf 2
Notes. 3
 
Heg Resilient 3
1NC Hegemony. 4
2NC Overview.. 5
2NC Extra. 8
AT: Competitiveness. 12
AT: Econ Kills Interdependence. 13
AT: Retrenchment Kills Heg. 14
AT: China. 16
AT: Kagan. 19
 
Heg Bad. 20
1NC Hegemony. 21
2NC Overview.. 24
2NC UQ.. 27
2NC Adventurism DA.. 30
2NC Militarism... 31
AT: Causes Heg Collapse. 33
AT: OSB Bad. 34
AT: Transition. 35
AT: Nye [China]. 38
AT: China. 39
AT: Kagan. 41
 
Liberal Order. 42
1NC Internationalism... 43
2NC Internationalism... 44
2NC Extra Cards. 46
AT: Western Leadership. 48
AT: Deudney & Ikenberry. 49
 
Naval Power. 49
1NC Navy Bad. 50
1NC Navy Defense. 51
2NC Navy Defense. 53
2NC Navy Bad. 56
 
Collective Blocks. 56
AT: Bandwagoning. 57
AT: Kagan/Lieber. 59
AT: Transition War [Herd]. 61
AT: Thayer. 62
AT: Mead. 64
AT: Khalilzad. 66
AT: Ferguson. 67
AT: BIW... 68
AT: Wohlforth. 70
AT: Brzezinski 72

Note: File price reduced
 
Hey everyone
 
This is the security k. Form matches function; the file is constructed to be just as versatile as the argument itself. The two 1nc shells, long and short, are there depending on the 1nc commitment you want to make. I'll highlight a few must-read cards and then general strategies.
 
1nc burke -
it's makes a ton of different arguments - root cause, aff impacts not real, war impact, util bad, and even a perm answer. it's referenced a bunch in the 2nc blocks, and is a great all-purpose arg.
 
2nc bilgin -
beginning discussions at the intellectual level is a better way to approach policy. it cites empirics of grassroots movements that have been taken upstream to be successfully implemented as policy, which is a classic arg against aff framework cards. this card makes the arguments that all security k debaters have to win eventually, that our academic discourse DOES matter.
 
the rest of the K is modular. the impacts can be read anywhere from the overview to the perm debate. whenever the aff talks about "our specific _____" you should pull lines from their evidence and incorporate those lines into the link blocks. for big Ks like aerospace, there are 1nc links in the link section, so make sure you check those out before round
 
finally, you'll be coming across the zenko and cohen article quite a few times in this file as well as the full text of the article at the bottom. the article characterizes this version of the security K well - this is the security K you read in front of judges who don't like or don't understand the K. it's written so that the impacts are very policy-friendly (see: impact calc) and salient to a wide range of affs across many topics. despite being a generic, it can be an argument that is easy to make very aff-specific.
 
good luck and happy debating
 
Contents
1NC Shells. 2
1NC—Security K (Short). 3
1NC—Security K (Long). 6
Top-Level Answers. 11
Framework. 12
K Prior. 13
Impact Calc. 16
Actor-Network Tracing. 18
Alt Solvency. 19
Death is an Illusion. 24
AT—Perm: Both. 26
AT—Perm: Other Instances. 29
AT—Perm: Judge Choice. 30
AT—Perm: Cozette. 31
AT—Cede the Political 32
AT—Threats Real 34
AT—Nye: Policy Relevance. 35
AT—Rotter: Focus on Materiality. 37
AT—Schweller: No Paranoia. 38
AT—Owen: Critical Turn Bad. 39
AT—Rasch: Enmity Good. 41
AT—Wendt: Inevitability. 45
AT—Pinker: Wars Down. 49
AT—Kaufman: No Impact 51
AT—Kraus: Reception Theory. 53
AT—Coyne: Falsifiability. 56
AT—Fitzsimmons: Complexity Bad. 58
AT—Jones: No Alt Solvency. 59
AT—Gunning: Pragmatism... 60
AT—Kurasawa: Predictions. 61
AT—Non-Unique Disad. 62
AT—Alt = Transition Wars. 64
AT—Threatcon K2 Action. 65
Realism Debate. 65
R—2NC.. 66
R—Psychoanalysis. 68
R—Fails. 70
R—Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. 71
AT—Human Nature. 72
AT—History. 75
AT—Defensive Realism... 76
AT—Mearshimer. 77
AT—Waltz. 79
AT—Guzzini 80
Impact Debate. 80
I—Arms Race***. 81
I—Cooperation. 83
I—Dehum***. 84
I—Ethnocentric Thinking***. 85
I—Interventionism***. 87
I—Racist Scholarship***. 88
I—Social Militarism... 89
I—Social Progress***. 90
Link Debate. 91
L—Agriculture. 92
L—All Purpose. 94
L—Arctic. 96
L—Aerospace—1NC.. 104
Morrissey 2011. 108
L—Biosecurity. 110
L—China—1NC.. 111
L—China—XTN.. 112
L—China—Epistemology. 115
L—Competitiveness—1NC.. 117
L—Competitiveness—XTN.. 118
L—Competitiveness—F/W... 122
L—Competitiveness—Epistemology. 125
L—Cybersecurity. 128
L—Death Impacts. 129
L—Democratization. 132
L—Deterrence. 133
L—Drones. 135
L—Economy. 138
L—Environment—1NC.. 142
L—Environment—XTN.. 144
L—Environment—Epistemology. 151
L—Environment—Scapegoating. 152
L—Environment—AT—Mobilization. 154
Apocalypticism... 154
Buell 3. 154
L—Environment—Alt Solves. 161
L—Hegemony. 162
L—Iran—1NC.. 166
L—Iran—XTN.. 168
L—India. 175
L—Infrastructure. 177
L—Infrastructure Terrorism... 181
L—Japan. 183
L—Korea. 186
L—Latin America. 192
L—Linearity. 194
L—Nanotech. 198
L—Nuke War. 199
L—Prolif—1NC.. 200
L—Prolif—XTN.. 207
L—Prolif—AT—Universal Opposition. 209
L—Prolif—AT—Perm... 210
L—Prolif—Epistemology. 214
L—Resolve. 216
L—Russia. 220
L—Space Mil 221
L—Trade. 227
Bottom-Level Answers. 229
Utopianism Good. 230
K Debate Good. 231
AIK.. 232
AIKs Good. 233
Vagueness Good. 234
Important—2013. 234
Must Read. 235
2NR Materials. 243
2NR—Impact Overview.. 244
2NR—Ethics Impact 245
2NR—Framework. 246
2NR XT—Bruce/Dean*** (H.A.M. Version). 247
2NR—AT Specificity/Solvency. 248
2NC—Psychoanalysis. 249
2NR—Cede the Political 250
2NR—Competitiveness K—Link. 251

This week's Thursday File brings back the Iran Sanctions DA. The GOP has restarted a push in the Senate since most of the other major controversial bills have been taken off the table. The file contains everything you need to kick off the weekend with a strong politics scenario, as well as some innovative answers to aff arguments.
 
Additionally, updates have been included for Immigration, minimum wage, and Ukraine, if you prefer those
 
Included are a collection of updates to supplement your generic politics answers, such as new PC fails, winners win, and fights good cards - these are a must-have for any debater
 
Aff answers are also included, including impact turns to minimum wage increase and new internal link defense for TPA
 
This week's file was authored by Akash Gogate, a freshman debater at Emory University who has debated at many national tournaments in high school and college.
 
 
Contents:
 
***NEG—Iran Sanctions. 2
Top Level 2
1NC DA.. 3
2NC OV.. 6
2NC Credibility. 7
 
Uniqueness. 7
2NC UQ.. 8
AT: UQ Overwhelms. 10
AT: Veto. 14
AT: Reid Blocks. 16
AT: Fights Now.. 19
AT: Thumper – Generic. 20
AT: Thumper – Defense. 22
 
Internals. 22
2NC PC Key. 23
AT: Winners Win. 25
 
Impacts. 25
2NC Iran Prolif 26
2NC North Korea. 31
AT: No Deal Collapse. 33
AT: Can’t Trust Iran. 34
AT: Sanction Key to Iranian Compliance. 35
AT: Talks Fail 36
AT: Sanctions Good. 37
AT: No Strikes. 42
AT: Waivers. 46
 
***NEG—Other Bills. 47
Immigration. 47
Will Pass. 48
 
Minimum Wage. 49
Will Pass. 50
 
Ukraine. 50
Won’t Pass. 51
 
***AFF—Specifics. 52
Immigration. 52
Won’t Pass. 53
 
Iran. 53
Reid Blocks. 54
2AC Deal Fails. 55
1AR Deal Fails – Ext 55
1AR Deal Fails – AT: Press TV.. 56
2AC No Prolif 57
2AC No Impact 58
2AC No Strikes. 59
1AR No Strikes – Ext 61
1AR No Strikes – AT: Kristol 62
 
Minimum Wage. 62
Won’t Pass. 63
2AC Raise Bad. 64
1AR Raise Bad – Ext 65
1AR Raise Bad – Statistics. 67
 
TPA.. 67
Won’t Pass. 68
Obama Not Pushing. 69
AT: Key to Trade. 71
 
***AFF—Generic. 74
Thumpers. 74
Defense Budget 75
Tax Reform... 75
 
Winners Win. 75
2AC W/W... 76
1AR W/W – Ext 78
1AR W/W – Foreign Policy. 80
1AR W/W – Bargaining. 81
 
Confrontation Good. 81
2AC Fights Good. 82
1AR Fights Good – Ext 83
1AR Fights Good – Inevitable. 84
 
PC Fails. 84
2AC PC Fails. 85
1AR PC Fails – Ext 86
1AR PC Fails – AT: SOTU.. 88
1AR PC Fails – AT: PC Solves. 89
 
***Misc Updates. 91
Midterms. 91
GOP Lose / Dems Win. 92
GOP Win / Dems Lose. 93