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Debatepedia is a global wiki encyclopedia of public debates, pro and con arguments, and supporting quotations. A project of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), Debatepedia is something like "the Wikipedia of debates". It aims to engage you and other citizen-editors in centralizing your original arguments - as well as arguments and quotations found in millions articles, essays, and books - into a single encyclopedia. This helps you and other citizens better weigh the pros and cons in important public debates and make decisions. We hope you will consider joining this ambitious effort as an editor of the site. Debatepedia is endorsed by the United States National Forensic League. Get started

IDEA and Debatepedia have created a global climate change debate portal that includes 20 highly developed pro/con debate articles on proposed solutions to global warming. We have done this in coordination with two prominent organizations and youth debate contests that are debating ways to solve global climate change:

• The People Speak Global Debates. An initiative of the United Nations Foundation, the Global Debates took place October 1-30. The topic: "The world should adopt our plan to significantly combat climate change." The topic for the March 2009 Global Debates is: "Developing Nations Have a Higher Obligation to Combat Climate Change". IDEA encourages eligible high schoolers to register. Event advertisement.

• The National Public Policy Forum (NPPF) NPPF is a debate contest founded in 2001 by the Bickel & Brewer law firm. The contest takes place between October 2008 and April 2009. The topic: "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase alternative energy incentives in the United States." We encourage eligible high schoolers to register. Event advertisement.

Debatepedia's global climate change debate portal helps TPS and NPPF debaters (as well as the general public) compare the pros and cons of over 20 different approaches to alternative energy and global warming. This provides a basis for determining what approaches should or should not be prioritized in creating "the ideal plan to solve global climate change".

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• Capital Punishment - Is the death penalty ever justified?
• Abortion - Should abortions of any kind be permitted?
• Same sex marriage - Is same sex marriage wrong and should it be illegal?
• Withdrawing from Iraq - Should the US Government immediately withdraw troops from Iraq?
• McCain vs. Obama - Who is the better candidate for president of the United States, John McCain or Barack Obama?
• Tibet independence - Should Tibet seek and gain independence?
• Animal testing - Is it morally acceptable to experiment on animals for human purposes?
• Guantanamo Bay - Is Guantanamo Bay's existence justified, or should it be closed?
• Prostitution - Should prostitution be legalized?
• Nuclear energy - Is nuclear energy worth exploiting?
• Euthanasia - Should euthanasia or assisted suicide be legalized?
• Marijuana, Legalization of - Should marijuana be legalized?
• Polygamy - Should polygamous marriages (to more than one person) be legal?
• Turkey, EU membership - Should Turkey be given membership in the EU?
• Vegetarianism - Should humans stop eating animals and become vegetarians?
• Banning Human Reproductive Cloning - Should human reproductive cloning be banned and punishments put in place against it?
• Banning Muslim head scarves - Should the wearing of Muslim head scarves be banned in schools, public buildings or society in general?

A steady supply of high quality debates to help you deliberate, take a stand, take action, vote, and back yourself up.

• Bosnia and Herzegovina membership in the EU - Should Bosnia and Herzegovina accede to the European Union? - 5 January 2009.

Featured pro and con arguments from this article:

• PRO: Joining the EU will help stabilize Bosnia and Herzegovina Wolfgang Petritsch. "EU welcome can safeguard Balkan stability". Australian. 19 Feb. 2008 - "Unless the European Union acts quickly, the whole region could slide backwards, with dire social, economic and security consequences. The EU needs a comprehensive regional approach, focusing on the remaining steps that would lead each country towards membership."

• CON: Joining the EU will hardly help solve Bosnia's problems Edward P. Joseph and R. Bruce Hitchner. "Making Bosnia Work: Why EU Accession is Not Enough". The United States Institute of Peace. June 2008 - "What was seen from the outset of conflict in Bosnia in 1992 as a 'European problem' will now, at last, have a putative 'European solution.' Or will it? On the one hand, it is true that other than fear of renewed conflict, the prospect of EU membership is the only overarching point of cohesion in a country still very much polarized by the legacy of war.1 On the other hand, as this paper explains, the SAA alone is no cure-all for the structural problems that keep Bosnia divided, physically and politically, in a sometimes hostile, zero-sum relationship dubbed 'war by other means.' The SAA is necessary to break the country’s deadlock, but alone it is quite insufficient to achieve that goal."

Recent Daily Debate Digest Topics:

• Dayton Agreement - Should Bosnia and Herzegovina continue under the Dayton Agreement or change/abandon it? - 24 Dec. 2008.
• Republika Srpska secession from Bosnia - Should Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina? - 20 Dec. 2008
• Abstinence-only vs. comprehensive sex education - Which is a better program in modernity: abstinence-only or comprehensive sex education? - 17 Dec. 2008.
• International Criminal Court - What are the pros and cons of the ICC? Should the US and other countries join? - 12 Dec. 2008.
• Rebuilding New Orleans - Should New Orleans be fully rebuilt and restored? - 9 Dec. 2008.
• Bailout of US automakers - Should the US government bailout US automakers (even with a low-interest loan)? - 2 Dec. 2008.

Past Daily Debate Digest topics

Here's a list of debates with tasks you can help with. See the getting started tutorial to learn more about how to edit.

• Military recruiting in public schools - A new debate that is particularly heated in the United States, where lower recruiting numbers have caused the US military to more actively recruit in public schools.
• Legalization of adult incest - A debate drawn from the Debatabase, another great IDEA project.
• Should the media publish images of Muhammad? - New debate that become globally important during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005.
• Does Islam promote violence? - New debate that you can be first to add an argument to.
• Return to the Gold Standard - New debate: Is returning to the global economic gold standard a good idea?
• Needle exchanges - New debate: Are needle exchanges a good idea?

• See Editing Tasks for more tasks that you can help with. And see the full list of underdeveloped debates on Debatepedia that you can help develop.

As a wiki like Wikipedia, Debatepedia's content is developed by you. We hope that you will join our active community of editors and help us in our mission to centralize debates and arguments from around the world into a single encyclopedia. Learn how to begin here.