Latin America, Military Presence Selected as Final Choices for 2027-28 National Policy Debate Topic

“Latin America” and “Military Presence” have been chosen as the final two choices for the 2027-28 National Policy Debate Topic.

As a part of the process to determine next year’s national debate topic, The NFHS tabulated ballots from 32 states and four partner organizations, including the National Speech and Debate Association, the National Debate Coaches Association, the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, and the National Catholic Forensic League. This step, which narrows five proposed topics to two, requires organizations to rank those five potential topics using a scale of one to five, with “one” being the preferred topic and “five” being least desirable. 

The two topic areas receiving the lowest total ranking scores were “Latin America” and “Military Presence.” These two topics will be placed on a final ballot, which will be sent to states and partner organizations for a final vote.  On January 10, 2027, the NFHS will announce the preferred topic area and resolution, and the 2027-28 national high school debate topic and resolution will be posted on the NFHS Speech and Debate webpage and sent to state associations and affiliate members. 

The following states and partner organizations returned ballots:

Within each potential debate topic area appears one resolution.  The resolutions within the two final topic areas are:

Latin America
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic and/or diplomatic engagement with one or more of the following: Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela.

Military Presence
Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly reduce its military presence in the Gulf Arab States and/or Northeast Asia.​

The following chart summarizes the balloting on the topic areas and their respective resolutions. Areas are ranked 1-2-3-4-5 with a low combined total indicative of top ranking.

Final Ranking Vote Tally

88        Military Presence
93        Latin America
103      China
112      Nuclear Arms Control
139      East and Northeast Africa

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