Title
Skill
Activity
Claims/Warrants
Procedure
Timing/Pacing
Notes
Follow-Up Activity
Text
US Armed Forces Abroad
Making a Strong Argument
Standard Choosing the Best Warrant Mini Debates
 Claim: The US should reduce its military presence abroad.
 Warrants:
o US military presence abroad is seen as a form of imperialism.
o US military presence abroad costs taxpayers too much money.
o US military presence abroad is not helping anyone.
Standard Choosing the Best Warrant Mini Debates
 Students need to know where the US maintains a military presence
and what its overseas bases are meant to accomplish. They should
also have some idea of how successful those bases are or appear.
 This will take about 15 minutes.
 This lesson relates to the previous one on hard and soft power.
Students might debate whether the goals of the US military (i.e., hard
power) abroad could be better achieved using soft power.
 For balance, consider a follow-up activity in which students advocate
for maintaining or expanding the US military’s presence abroad.
Defeating the Critic Paragraph
A standard textbook entry on the subject will suffice, though current
news articles and other primary sources would also be valuable.
Boston Debate League 2012 ©
Name:____________________________________ Class:______________ Date:______________
Choosing the Best Warrant Mini-Debate
Background Information:
Claim: The US should reduce its military presence abroad.
Warrants:
o US military presence abroad is seen as a form of imperialism.
o US military presence abroad costs taxpayers too much money.
o US military presence abroad is not helping anyone.
Boston Debate League 2012 ©
Choosing the Best Warrant Mini Debates – Which warrant best proves the claim is true?
Before the Mini Debate write the two reasons you believe your warrant best proves the claim is true in the top two boxes in the appropriate
column (i.e. warrant 1 or warrant 2).
Claim: The US should reduce its military presence abroad.
My warrant (Warrant __) best
proves the claim is true
because…
1st Reason
warrant
best proves
the claim is
true.
2nd Reason
warrant
best proves
the claim is
true.
Boston Debate League © 2012
My 1st opponent argues warrant My 2nd opponent argues warrant
___ best proves the claim is true ___ best proves the claim is true
because…
because…