Aff Case

"When the United Nations can truly call itself a community of democracies, the Charter's noble ideals of protecting human rights and promoting social progress in larger freedoms' will have been brought much closer. When the founders of the United Nations met in San Francisco more than half a century ago, they knew that no foundation of peace would be sturdier than democratic government."

--U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan"

-It is because of this quote that I am here to affirm the resolution.

RESOLVED: THE UNITED STATES HAS A MORAL OBLIGATION TO PROMOTE DEMOCRATIC IDEALS IN OTHER NATIONS.

Definitions:

moral- conforming to standards of what is just behavior

obligation- a requirement or duty that compels one to follow a course of action

promote- to contribute to the progress or growth of

democratic- a form of government that possesses these characteristics: regular elections for the most powerful gov't positions; competitive political parties; secret balloting; societal voice; human rights

ideals- an ultimate object of endeavor; a goal

My value for the debate is peace. Peace is the ultimate endeavor of humanity since the beginning of civilization. It is proven that democracies do not go to war with other democracies. If all countries are democratic then there will be very little war. This is why we are obligated to promote democratic ideals globally.

My value criterion for the debate is respect. Forcing democracy onto other nations is not democratic and will not help the cause. Respecting and including the ideas of other nations is one of the principles of democracy. Respect will unify us with other countries thereby resulting in peace.

Contention 1: Democracies do not fight other democracies

Sub Point A: Immanuel Kant was one of the most influential philosophers of his age. His Perpetual Peace still holds true today. It states that democratic leaders are restrained by the resistance of their people to bearing

the costs and deaths of war. In other words, democracies don't go to war with other democracies.

Sub Point B: Kant's Perpetual Peace if further supported by Rudolph Rummel's work. Rummel is one of the most notable political scientists of our age. He received his education at Northwestern University and has taught at a number of universities, including Yale. He was a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize and has written over 2-dozen books and over 100 articles dealing with democratic peace. There has never been a clear case of democracies making war on each other. Given the number of democracies, the odds of this occurring by chance is well beyond millions to one. According to his findings, in 175 yrs, no two democracies have gone to war against each other. There were 353 pairs of nations engaged in war that were either between a democracy and a non-democracy or a non-democracy and a non-democracy. Rummel says that democracy is a general cure for political or collective violence of any kindÐ'--it is a method of nonviolence. If promoting democracy means that we can lower the number of wars that occur, thereby leading to peace, than we are obligated to do so.

Contention 2: Respect