London Foreign Policy Debating Tournament

3 May 2025 (Saturday) - SOAS University of London

£40 per team (2 individuals) - Novice/Open categories are based on your experience.

About the Tournament

The Foreign Policy Debating Tournament is a new initiative where students will be introduced to an alternative format tackling foreign policy topics, but with the same elements seen in debating competitions.

The debate tournament will use the British Parliament (BP) format. A BP tournament consists of teams of 2 speakers. In one round, there will be 4 teams, meaning there are 8 speakers in total. The 4 teams will be divided into Opening Proposition, Opening Opposition, Closing Proposition, and Closing Opposition. The Proposition teams may also be referred to as the Government teams.

Tentative Event Schedule

08:00 - 08:15

08:15 - 08:30

08:30 - 09:45

09:50 - 11:05

11:10 - 12:25

12:25 - 13:25

13:25 - 14:40

14:45 - 15:05

15:05 - 16:15

16:20 - 17:30

17:35 - 18:05

Registration

Briefing Session

Preliminary Debate (Round 1)

Preliminary Debate (Round 2)

Preliminary Debate (Round 3)

Lunch Break

Preliminary Debate (Round 4)

Break Announcement and Rest

Final (Novice Group)

Final (Open Group)

Awards Ceremony and Closing

Motions and Judging Criteria

The judging criteria will differ from commonly used BP rubrics or guidelines. While one’s rhetoric, structure, and speaking style are crucial for a winning speech, a truly excellent speech at the Tournament will also have academic rigour, backed up with valid and reliable sources, or introducing great critical analyses based on theories and concepts in International Relations.

The judging team will consist of experienced MUNers and debating adjudicators in the UK who will be carefully selected and thoroughly trained to strike this balance.

Motions are topics that students will be debating on for each round. Motions exist within a theme. For instance, the motion “This House Believes That geoengineering is the best way to address climate change” would exist under the theme of “climate change” or “environment”.

On the 4th of April, a study guide will be published alongside with the rulebook and judging criteria, revealing the themes of the motions in each debate round. There will be 4 themes in total for each preliminary round, and one theme will be re-used for the finals.