Cal 2021 Extemp Topic Areas

Round 1: The Middle East and North Africa
(Questions will focus on these geographic areas, no type of issue is off limits.)

Round 2: Domestic Economics and Politics

Round 3:  Central America and South America
(Questions will focus on these geographic areas, no type of issue is off limits.)

Round 4: Domestic Public Health and Environmental Issues
(There is a lot more to these questions than COVID.)

Octos:  US Foreign Policy
(At least the bars for succeeding at answering these questions are pretty low.)

Quarters: 2021 Bingo
(Put your predictive capabilities to the test! We live in interesting times; here’s a question from a similarly themed round a few years ago to get an idea of what these topics look like: “Predict the Crisis: Which Petro-State is going to economically collapse next?”)

Semis: Powertrip
(Rounds with this sort of theme tend to be a competitor favorite - so we’re keeping it around! This year, speakers will tackle hotspot issues as a leader who is not currently in power. Here’s a topic from a similarly themed round a few years ago to get an idea (it has not aged well) “You’re Aung San Suu Kyi; you are now the unquestioned leader of Myanmar. How do you approach the Rohingya crisis?”)

Finals: Wildcard Trilaterals
(These will involve 3 agents of action; these could be major international organizations, individual countries, rebel groups, multinational corporations, etc.)