What is the eligibility level for participants in this debate series?

The debate series is open to college-level students.

St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series 2026 (Semi-Finals)

Q: Where is the St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series (Semi-Finals) held?

The semi-finals are held in Iloilo City, PHL.

Feb 9, 2026Iloilo City, PhilippinesIn-person

The St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series (Semi-Finals) is an academic competition held in Iloilo City, Philippines. This event brings together college-level students from various departments to engage in structured debate, fostering critical thinking and oratorical skills. The semi-finals represent a crucial stage in the competition, determining which teams advance to the final rounds.

Committees & topics

Topics
Reaffirming the Global Commitment to Eliminate Anti-Personnel Landmines · Prohibiting the Targeting of Civilians by Drone Weapons in Armed Conflict · Reducing Global Trade Tensions and Reaffirming Commitments to Lower Trade Barriers · Mitigating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation on Workers · Reaffirming International Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict · Ending the Criminalization of Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers in Developed Countries · Strengthening the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime · Establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East

Why it matters

Debate competitions like the St. Augustine’s Cup are vital for developing future leaders and diplomats. Participants hone their ability to articulate complex arguments, engage in respectful discourse, and understand diverse perspectives. These skills are fundamental in international relations, where effective communication and negotiation are paramount for resolving conflicts and building consensus. The interdepartmental nature of the event also encourages students to apply their specialized knowledge to broader societal issues, promoting interdisciplinary understanding.

For the host institution in PHL, the event showcases its commitment to academic excellence and student development. It provides a platform for students to demonstrate their intellectual prowess and engage with challenging topics. Beyond the immediate competition, such events contribute to a vibrant intellectual environment, encouraging students to delve deeper into current affairs and policy debates, which is essential for informed global citizenship.

How to prepare

Prospective participants should focus on developing robust research skills to support their arguments with credible evidence. Understanding the nuances of various debate formats and practicing structured argumentation will be crucial. Furthermore, students should engage in mock debates to refine their delivery, rebuttal techniques, and ability to think critically under pressure. Familiarity with current events and potential debate topics will also provide a significant advantage.

Beyond individual preparation, effective teamwork is paramount in interdepartmental debates. Teams should practice collaborative research, argument construction, and strategic planning. Understanding each team member's strengths and weaknesses can help in assigning roles and optimizing performance. Developing strong engagement strategies during the debate, including active listening and persuasive speaking, will be key to impressing judges and swaying opinions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Philippines

The Philippines actively promotes academic debate as a tool for youth development and critical thinking.

Role in topic

As the host nation, PHL provides the venue and institutional support for the St. Augustine’s Cup, demonstrating its commitment to fostering intellectual discourse among its college students. Such events contribute to the nation's educational landscape by encouraging public speaking and analytical skills.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Reaffirming the Global Commitment to Eliminate Anti-Personnel Landmines

The international campaign against anti-personnel landmines culminated in the 1997 Ottawa Convention (Mine Ban Treaty), which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of such weapons and obliges states parties to clear mined areas and assist victims. More than 160 states have joined the treaty, and global stockpiles have been reduced by tens of millions of mines. The treaty grew out of a coalition of states, the ICRC, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work. Despite this progress, major military powers including the United States, Russia, China, India, and Pakistan have never joined the Convention, and non-state armed groups continue to deploy improvised mines in conflicts from Myanmar to the Sahel. Landmine casualties have risen sharply since 2022, driven primarily by the war in Ukraine, where extensive mine contamination has made parts of the country among the most heavily mined on earth. Reports of new mine use by Russian forces, and the 2024 U.S. decision to transfer non-persistent anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, have raised concerns about an erosion of the norm. The debate today centers on universalizing the Ottawa regime, addressing recent announcements by several European states (Finland, the Baltic states, Poland) of intent to withdraw or reconsider participation in light of the Russian threat, financing humanitarian demining, and strengthening victim assistance under Article 6. Delegates must weigh the humanitarian imperative against renewed arguments about territorial defense.

Key players

Prohibiting the Targeting of Civilians by Drone Weapons in Armed Conflict

Armed unmanned aerial vehicles emerged as a central instrument of warfare following the post-2001 U.S. counterterrorism campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, where targeted killings by drones generated controversy over civilian harm, sovereignty, and the legal basis for strikes outside declared battlefields. UN Special Rapporteurs Philip Alston, Christof Heyns, and Ben Emmerson successively warned that lax targeting standards risked eroding international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law. Proliferation has since accelerated. Turkish Bayraktar TB2s, Iranian Shahed loitering munitions, Chinese Wing Loong and CH-series platforms, and a growing market of commercial-derived systems have placed armed drones in the hands of dozens of states and non-state actors. Conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh (2020), Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya have featured large-scale drone use, including documented strikes on residential areas, hospitals, and humanitarian convoys. Iranian-supplied Shahed drones used by Russia against Ukrainian cities and Houthi drone attacks in the Red Sea region have intensified concerns. The legal framework — the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I, and customary IHL — already prohibits direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. The contemporary debate concerns operationalizing these rules for drone warfare: transparency on targeting criteria, accountability for civilian casualties, export controls under the MTCR and Arms Trade Treaty, and whether a dedicated instrument or political declaration is needed to reinforce existing norms.

Key players

Reducing Global Trade Tensions and Reaffirming Commitments to Lower Trade Barriers

The post-1945 multilateral trading system, built on the GATT and consolidated in 1995 under the World Trade Organization, drove decades of tariff reductions and rules-based dispute settlement. Average global tariffs fell substantially, and trade-to-GDP ratios rose until the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, the Doha Round has stalled, and the WTO Appellate Body has been paralyzed since 2019 due to U.S. blocking of new appointments, weakening the system's enforcement spine. The U.S.-China tariff confrontation that began in 2018 marked a turning point, normalizing the use of unilateral tariffs and national-security-based trade restrictions. Subsequent shocks — the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, semiconductor export controls, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act's domestic-content subsidies, and the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — have accelerated a turn toward industrial policy, "friend-shoring," and unilateral measures. In 2025, sweeping new U.S. tariffs and reciprocal measures by trading partners produced the most significant rise in applied tariff levels in decades. The core dispute pits proponents of strategic autonomy, supply-chain security, and decarbonization-linked trade measures against advocates for restoring most-favored-nation discipline, reviving WTO dispute settlement (including the MPIA workaround), and disciplining non-tariff barriers such as subsidies, sanitary measures, and digital trade restrictions. Developing countries seek special and differential treatment, while small open economies push to preserve predictability.

Key players

Mitigating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation on Workers

Concerns about technology displacing workers are not new, but the rapid diffusion of generative AI since 2022 has broadened the range of tasks vulnerable to automation, including white-collar work in writing, coding, customer service, translation, and analysis. The IMF has estimated that around 40 percent of jobs globally — and roughly 60 percent in advanced economies — are exposed to AI, with both productivity gains and displacement risks. The ILO's 2023 study suggested generative AI is more likely to augment than fully replace most jobs, but warned of disproportionate effects on clerical work and on women. Parallel concerns involve the conditions of workers within the AI economy itself: low-paid data labelers and content moderators in Kenya, the Philippines, Venezuela, and elsewhere; algorithmic management of platform workers in ride-hailing, delivery, and warehousing; and the use of surveillance technologies that intensify work. The EU AI Act (entered into force 2024), the U.S. executive actions on AI, China's generative-AI rules, and ILO instruments on platform work form an emerging but fragmented governance landscape. The debate focuses on social protection and reskilling financing, taxation of AI-driven productivity gains, collective-bargaining rights over algorithmic management, transparency obligations for employers, international labor standards for data work, and how to ensure that developing countries are not locked into the lowest tiers of the AI value chain.

Key players

Reaffirming International Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict

International humanitarian law, codified principally in the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, governs the conduct of hostilities and protects those not, or no longer, taking part in them: civilians, the wounded and sick, prisoners of war, humanitarian workers, and medical personnel. Customary IHL, the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court reinforce the regime, while UN Security Council resolutions — notably 1502 (humanitarian workers), 2286 (healthcare in conflict), and 2417 (conflict and hunger) — translate IHL into operational expectations. The last several years have seen unprecedented strain on the regime. Aid Worker Security Database figures show record killings of humanitarian personnel, with Gaza accounting for the deadliest year ever recorded for UN staff. Attacks on hospitals and medical workers have been documented in Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, and Gaza. ICC arrest warrants issued in 2024 for Israeli and Hamas leaders, and ongoing ICJ proceedings concerning Gaza, have politicized enforcement, while Russia's conduct in Ukraine — including strikes on energy infrastructure and treatment of POWs — has generated further ICC warrants. The debate focuses on reaffirming core IHL prohibitions without renegotiating them, strengthening accountability mechanisms, ensuring humanitarian access and deconfliction, protecting healthcare under Resolution 2286, and addressing newer challenges such as siege warfare, cyber operations against civilian infrastructure, and the conduct of non-state armed groups.

Key players

Ending the Criminalization of Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers in Developed Countries

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1990 Migrant Workers Convention, and the 2018 Global Compacts on Refugees and on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration form the backbone of international migration governance. Yet the gap between these commitments and practice in destination countries has widened. Irregular entry, asylum claims, and assistance to migrants have increasingly been treated as criminal rather than administrative matters, with prosecutions of search-and-rescue NGOs in the Mediterranean, criminal penalties for unauthorized entry, and prolonged immigration detention becoming common. Key recent developments include the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum (adopted 2024), the UK-Rwanda removals scheme (largely dismantled in 2024), Italian agreements with Albania for offshore processing, U.S. policies tightening asylum access at the southern border and expanding expedited removal, and Australia's longstanding offshore detention model. UN human rights bodies, UNHCR, and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants have warned that such measures violate the principle of non-refoulement, undermine the right to seek asylum, and disproportionately harm children and survivors of trafficking. The debate centers on decriminalizing irregular entry and humanitarian assistance, ensuring access to fair asylum procedures, ending arbitrary and indefinite detention, expanding regular pathways, and reconciling destination states' border-control prerogatives with their treaty obligations and with the responsibilities of transit and origin states.

Key players

Strengthening the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

The 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) rests on three pillars: non-proliferation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and disarmament. With 191 states parties, it is among the most widely adhered-to security treaties, supported by IAEA safeguards, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT, not yet in force), and export-control arrangements such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) added a parallel humanitarian-disarmament track, though no nuclear-weapon state has joined. The regime is under acute strain. The 2022 NPT Review Conference ended without a consensus document due to Russian objections, and the 2026 RevCon approaches amid Russia's nuclear threats over Ukraine, its de-ratification of the CTBT, the lapse of New START's verification regime, North Korea's expanding arsenal and 2024 strategic partnership with Russia, Iran's enrichment to 60 percent and reduced IAEA cooperation, and concerns about rapid Chinese arsenal growth. The AUKUS naval-propulsion arrangement has raised safeguards questions, and proliferation hedging is increasingly discussed in capitals from Seoul to Riyadh. The debate focuses on preserving NPT Article VI disarmament commitments, restoring U.S.-Russia strategic stability, bringing the CTBT into force, strengthening IAEA safeguards and additional protocols, addressing the Iran and DPRK files, and reconciling the NPT and TPNW communities.

Key players

Establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East

Nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) have been successfully established in Latin America and the Caribbean (Tlatelolco, 1967), the South Pacific (Rarotonga, 1985), Southeast Asia (Bangkok, 1995), Africa (Pelindaba, 1996), and Central Asia (Semipalatinsk, 2006), covering the entire Southern Hemisphere and parts of the Northern. Each prohibits the development, stationing, and testing of nuclear weapons within the zone and is paired with negative security assurances from the nuclear-weapon states. The Middle East has been the subject of NWFZ proposals since a 1974 Iran-Egypt initiative at the UN General Assembly, with the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference resolution on the Middle East linking indefinite extension of the NPT to progress on a regional zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. A planned 2012 Helsinki Conference was indefinitely postponed. Since 2019, Arab states have driven an annual UN-convened Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, which Israel has not attended and the United States has not supported; Iran's participation has been irregular. The core obstacles remain Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal and non-membership in the NPT, Iran's advanced enrichment program and tensions with the IAEA, regional rivalries, and disagreement over sequencing — whether comprehensive peace must precede a zone, or vice versa. The debate also looks to lessons for other regions, including Northeast Asia, where proposals for a zone covering the Korean Peninsula and its neighbors have circulated.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series 2026 (Semi-Finals).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

China's New Strategy for Taiwan and Japan

Japan's Dilemma Over Hormuz Mine Clearance

North Korea's Nuclear Navy Ambitions

Nabha Security Incident Exposes Punjab Issues

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Frequently asked questions

Free account

Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free.

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St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series 2026 (Semi-Finals)

Feb 9, 2026Iloilo City, PhilippinesIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Reaffirming the Global Commitment to Eliminate Anti-Personnel Landmines · Prohibiting the Targeting of Civilians by Drone Weapons in Armed Conflict · Reducing Global Trade Tensions and Reaffirming Commitments to Lower Trade Barriers · Mitigating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation on Workers · Reaffirming International Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict · Ending the Criminalization of Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers in Developed Countries · Strengthening the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime · Establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Philippines

The Philippines actively promotes academic debate as a tool for youth development and critical thinking.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Reaffirming the Global Commitment to Eliminate Anti-Personnel Landmines

Key players

Prohibiting the Targeting of Civilians by Drone Weapons in Armed Conflict

Key players

Reducing Global Trade Tensions and Reaffirming Commitments to Lower Trade Barriers

Key players

Mitigating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation on Workers

Key players

Reaffirming International Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict

Key players

Ending the Criminalization of Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers in Developed Countries

Key players

Strengthening the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

Key players

Establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for St. Augustine’s Cup Interdepartmental Debate Series 2026 (Semi-Finals).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

China's New Strategy for Taiwan and Japan

Japan's Dilemma Over Hormuz Mine Clearance

North Korea's Nuclear Navy Ambitions

Nabha Security Incident Exposes Punjab Issues

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Philippines College February 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

Free account

Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free.

Create free account

Already a member? Log in

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

50th Mindanao Parliamentary Debate Championship 2026

National University Debate Championship (NUDC) 2026

1st Gene-IUS Debate: Codex de Bioethicae

1st AUAP International Student English Debate Championship 2026

1st AUAP International Student English Debate Competition 2026

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

50th Mindanao Parliamentary Debate Championship 2026

National University Debate Championship (NUDC) 2026

1st Gene-IUS Debate: Codex de Bioethicae

1st AUAP International Student English Debate Championship 2026

1st AUAP International Student English Debate Competition 2026