2025 IPDA Resolutions

Round 1 - Education

a. Home schooling is not a proper substitute for public education.
b. An education in the humanities is more valuable than an education in the natural sciences.
c. The United States federal government should establish a universal pre-kindergarten program.
d. Schools ought to encourage more students to enter vocational programs rather than four-year degree programs.
e. Phonics, rather than whole word learning, ought to be the preferred method for teaching children how to read.

Round 2 - Environment

a. The United States federal government should substantially increase financial incentives for nuclear energy production.
b. Go vegan.
c. Ocean acidification is a bigger problem than deforestation.
d. “Green capitalism” will not solve anthropogenic climate change.
e. When in conflict, Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge ought to be preferred to insights from Western science.

Round 3 - Military Operations

a. The United States federal government should end its military support of Israel.
b. The world will be more secure once Ukraine is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
c. Cyber warfare is safer than traditional military conflict.
d. States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
e. The People’s Republic of China should dispose of its nuclear weapons arsenal.

Round 4 - Pop Culture

a. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should go on the Joe Rogan Experience.
b. Social media sites are just tools of right-wing disinformation.
c. If more people knew about the working conditions of K-Pop stars, the genre wouldn’t be as popular as it is now.
d. The United States federal government should nationalize Ticketmaster.
e. Celebrities ought to formally endorse political candidates.

Semifinals - Governments & Politics

a. Billionaires have no place in democracy.
b. The “security dilemma” makes nuclear war inevitable.
c. The United States federal government should abolish the Electoral College.
d. When in conflict, misinformation is preferred over censorship.
e. Violent revolution is an appropriate response to political oppression.

Finals - Technology & Society

a. Facial recognition technology is more harmful than good.
b. National space agencies should increase their investments in unmanned space exploration.
c. Tesla is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
d. The United States should enact a policy to curtail the proliferation and utilization of deepfake technology.
e. Open access research publications ought to be prioritized by university researchers.