The official results of the first stage of the topic process have been released and are available. The community has voted in favor of the Middle East topic and we will now turn our efforts to that subject.

Thanks

Before we do I would like to once again thank Scott Elliot and Greta Stahl for their controversy papers. We had a number of very strong options this year because these folks were willing to give up their time and write papers. Writing a topic that 'loses' is the only way to provide the community with great options. We appreciate their service.

The Middle East Controversy Paper

Steve Mancuso and Michael Maffie authored the controversy paper discussing constructive engagement with the Middle East which will serve as the foundation for our work as a committee and as a community.

This year we asked authors to develop problem area papers with specific attention to the most significant public policy controversy in that body of literature. These 'controversies' may be understood as the specific theme of a topic. Anyone who has explained the topic to someone from outside the debate community may also recognize these themes as those brief summaries of the debate topic.

We developed the voting options for this ballot from those controversies. The wording you see below will now function as the parameters for the committee's work in wording a specific topic. This does not mean that the following words are locked into a topic, but rather that the following controversies will serve as guiding precedents for our work. The basic topic concept and direction are the types of information you should regard as fixed in each of these controversies. The specific problem area for 2007-08 is:

Should the US increase constructive engagement in the Middle East?

Wording Papers - The Next Step

The CEDA constitution charges the topic committee with the task of developing specific wording options for a second community vote. Specifically the constitution calls for:

"In early July the committee will report to the Executive Secretary no fewer than three resolutions corresponding to the winning topic area. The resolutions should be phrased so as to affirm the value of future and specific governmental change, and suggesting a broad but predictable array of potential affirmative plans."

The topic committee will be assigned to conduct research that will complete the task started by Mancuso and Maffie - to explore the specific dimensions of this constructive engagement topic. Committee work will focus on two primary concerns:

1) The nature of constructive engagement (CE) (i.e., what is CE, is it narrowed by specific economic or military terms of art?)

2) The specific countries or regional identity for object countries (i.e., the Middle East vs. a specific list of nations, with emphasis on which specific nations should be included or excluded.)

I will be opening topic threads for each of these items. As specific sub-threads develop (i.e., about specific countries) I will open new threads and move commentary to those threads. Members of the community should feel free to use this blog as a means of leaving feedback on specific ideas.

The committee is ultimately tasked with the responsibility of voting for the slate of wording options that will appear on the next ballot, but any member of the community may submit a wording paper. In just the last day I have heard from volunteers working on a primarily (or solely) military means of CE (Hays Watson) and Julian Gagnon has volunteered to write a proposal concerning Saudi Arabia's inclusion. These are volunteers from the community - we welcome your participation in areas that interest you. Members of the community should also feel free to work together on wording papers.

Wording papers should focus on the specific terms to be used in a resolution. They should cite relevant literature to help demonstrate the saliency of these terms. Authors should provide their recommendations and include both competitive and educational rationales for specific terms. All wording papers must relate to the foundation of this controversy (i.e., increasing constructive engagement toward the Middle East).

All wording papers submitted to the topic chair by Sunday May 13, 2007 and directly relating to the controversy selected by the community vote will be placed on the agenda for the summer meetings and, subject to a committee vote, placed on the topic wording ballot. All wording papers submitted by the deadline and meeting the above guidelines will be voted on by the committee. Completed and germane papers will be presumptively considered for the ballot.

The Topic Meetings

The CEDA summer business meeting takes place in early summer and includes 2.5 days worth of deliberation on the wording choices. The location of the meeting is determined by the CEDA executive council after considering bids from host intuitions. The 2007 meeting will be hosted by James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA from Monday, May 21-Wednesday May 23. The CEDA business meeting will take place immediately prior to the topic session (May 19-21).

The meeting agenda is set by the committee chair. The meetings are open to the entire community. The committee will work with CEDA leadership to provide information to the larger community including live blogging, webcasting (when possible) and public posting of notes. This site will be host for such posted information.

The 08-09 Topic

The final actions of the committee at the summer meetings will be selecting a slate of controversies to be investigated during 07-08. If you have suggestions for these controversies or would like to volunteer to write such a paper, please let me know. There are no content restrictions for this topic cycle (i.e., domestic, international and legal topic proposals are all welcome). There is also a pending CEDA constitutional amendment (#9) that would move back much of the current balloting schedule. This would mean that the topic process would begin later next summer.

Questions?

Feel free to leave them on the blog or email me at stables@usc.edu

Thanks for reading.

Gordon Stables
Chair - CEDA Topic Selection Committee