In our continuing relationship with École Militaire, the French War College based in Paris, we sent debaters Michael Wang and Zoë Ewing to debate against École de Guerre Officers at the United Nations.

Each year, the École Militaire selects ten senior officers to join their debate team. Senior officers typically have 15 years of experience in the field. Unlike the US, there is little debate culture in France and consequently the École Militaire debate team travels to the United States to debate against teams like the Columbia Debate Society. The teams debated the motion:

This House supports state-mandated encryption backdoors

While there, Michael and Zoe also attended a briefing by the French Ambassador to the United Nations and spoke with French officials. 

On April 28th, Tomás Esteve and Dan Driscoll of the Columbia Debate Society took on two debaters from West Point in a public exposition on the following resolution: This house would utilize enhanced interrogation in the fight against terrorism. The room was packed full of debaters from both schools, friends, family, and spectators, all eager to watch what was expected to be an exciting round. The West Point debaters, clad in their cadet uniforms, argued in favor of solitary confinement and other enhanced interrogation methods. While Dan outlined the moral implications of such an action, Tomás focused his speech time on the pragmatic approach, together constructing an opposition case that won the debate on a 2-0 decision. Both Esteve and Driscoll were awarded Medals of Excellence in the Humanities by a representative of West Point upon finishing the debate.

The topic was on the elimination plea bargains. Columbia argued that plea bargains result in innocent defendants choosing to plea guilty out of fear of harsh sentences sought by prosecutors. Jackson and Moussignac were valiant opponents, however, and the 7 person panel gave the win to Rikers in a 4-3 vote.

Read the full coverage in the Wall Street Journal.

Columbia Debate team members Adrian Ivashkiv and Arnold Lee participated in a debate against Rikers Island inmates Kori Jackson, 22, and Jack Moussignac, 35.