Policy debate uses one resolution per season, September through June. The 2025-26 topic is below, and the 2026-27 resolution is announced ahead of the new season. Affs run plans; Negs run DAs, CPs, K's, and T-violations. Speed is normal. Theory and framework debates routinely decide ballots.
Negs typically read three or four off-case positions in the 1NC against most plans:
The topic stacks three separate debates: whether to militarize against Russia and China, whether to develop Arctic resources, and whether engaging the Arctic on US terms is legitimate at all. The strongest 1ACs pick one frame and commit. Affs that try to carry all three lose to permutation-based counterplans.
Policy debate (also called Cross-Examination or CX) is the deepest and most evidence-driven U.S. high-school and college debate format. Two teams of two debaters. One resolution runs the entire season. The affirmative proposes a specific plan under the resolution; the negative attacks via disadvantages, counterplans, kritiks, topicality, and case turns. Spreading (260-320 words per minute) is standard on the national circuit.
About 90 minutes including prep. Eight speeches: four 8-minute constructives (1AC, 1NC, 2AC, 2NC) and four 5-minute rebuttals (1NR, 1AR, 2NR, 2AR). Four 3-minute cross-examinations between speakers. Eight minutes of prep time per team to divide across the round however they want.
Spreading is rapid delivery (260 to 320 words per minute) of tagged evidence cards. Started on the national Policy circuit decades ago as a way to fit more arguments into each speech. The judge flows every argument; dropped arguments are conceded. Spreading is accepted at circuit tournaments and many states; it is rejected at most lay-judged local tournaments. Read every paradigm.
First Affirmative Constructive. Eight minutes. The Aff reads its plan: a specific policy action under the resolution, plus inherency (status quo barriers), harms (why the status quo is bad), solvency (how the plan fixes it), and one or more advantages with their own impacts. 1ACs are usually fully pre-written and refined over the season.
A disadvantage (DA) argues the plan causes a bad outcome: uniqueness (status quo is fine), link (plan changes the status quo in a specific way), internal link (that change causes worse outcomes), impact (the final bad result). A counterplan (CP) offers a non-resolutional alternative that solves the case better than the plan or avoids the disad. CPs must be competitive: either mutually exclusive with the plan or generating a net benefit.
A kritik (K) is a philosophical critique of the plan's underlying assumptions or epistemology. Common Ks: capitalism, security, biopower (Foucault), settler colonialism, anti-blackness, anthropocentrism. Three parts: link (the plan engages in the criticized behavior), impact (the harm of that behavior), alternative ("reject the plan and embrace [X discourse]"). The K-versus-policy split is one of the format's defining philosophical divides.
Topicality (T) is a procedural argument that the Aff plan does not fall under the resolution. Structure: interpretation (what the resolution means), violation (how the plan fails it), standards (limits, ground, education, fairness), voters (reject the team for the procedural violation). T is argued as an a-priori voter: if the plan is non-topical, the Aff loses regardless of substantive merit.
A full competitive season. The NSDA/NFHS announces one high-school Policy resolution each year in August; teams research and debate it from September through nationals in June. College Policy uses the National Debate Topic (NDT/CEDA) on a similar annual cycle. Year-long topics are what enable Policy's depth: teams cut hundreds of cards, build pre-written blocks for every common argument, and refine 1AC plans across months of practice rounds.
Short guides on the moves that win specific Policy speeches.
The AI runs Policy with theory, T, K's, and DAs. Spreading-friendly. RFDs include line-by-line on the flow.
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