The traditional ontological belief in Christianity is predicated by a hierarchical theory of structure, where authority flowed from the top down, and laws—both moral and civil—were seen as expressions of this divinely ordained structure, with the church playing a central role in interpreting God’s will and enforcing moral order.

In contrast, the Two-Kingdoms doctrine holds that there is a separation between the divine and the earthly. In this view, all people and institutions in the earthly realm are equal in nature and authority. Law in the earthly kingdom is judged by human reason and justice rather than divine hierarchy, and no person or institution mediates another’s relationship with God.

For the purpose of this debate, pilgrimages are physical journeys to sacred religious sites. Examples include the Hajj to Mecca in Islam, the Camino de Santiago in Christianity, and the Kumbh Mela in Hinduism.

Sectarian minorities are groups that differ from the dominant sect of a religion in beliefs, practices, or identity. These typically include religious communities such as Shia Muslims in Sunni-majority countries, or other smaller Islamic sects (e.g., Ismailis, Ahmadis, and etc.).

Selective ethnic recruitment refers to colonial-era policies in which certain ethnic groups were deliberately favored for military service based on stereotypical assumptions about their inherent bravery or martial prowess, while other groups were excluded.

Popular examples include the British prioritising the Sikhs and the Gurkhas while deprioritising the Bengalis in India, Northerners (e.g., Hausa-Fulani) being prioritised heavily over southern groups in Nigeria, etc. 

Dictatorships often employ the divide-and-rule strategy by fragmenting the military’s power to ensure that no single military group has the power to overthrow them. 

Some popular examples include Saddam Hussein creating the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard separate from the main military in Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi weakening the regular army and creating loyalist militias in Libya, etc.

As of March 20, 2025, Grab Holdings Ltd., a leading Southeast Asian ride-hailing and delivery company headquartered in Singapore, is actively pursuing the acquisition of Indonesian tech conglomerate GoTo Group, which is a dominant player in Indonesia's digital economy, providing services such as ride-hailing and e-commerce.

The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is Japan’s primary public pension fund and the largest in the world, managing over ¥220 trillion (approximately USD $1.5 trillion). As of recent years, roughly 50% of GPIF’s portfolio is invested in foreign assets—split evenly between foreign equities and foreign bonds. These include major holdings primarily in the U.S. stock indexes (such as the S&P 500) and debt instruments like the U.S. Treasury securities.

The Mekong Delta—which produces over half of Vietnam’s rice and a significant share of its aquaculture exports—has historically been highly fragmented, with most farms averaging less than 0.5 hectares. A significant proportion of land holdings are held by smallholder households from ethnic minority communities, such as the Khmer and Hoa people, who occupy land without proper documentation and rely on informal recognition by local authorities or customary claims. Typically, these households cultivate various crops (e.g., rice, corn, tapioca, etc.) on their land. The region is experiencing rapid climate change and natural calamities.

Recently, the Vietnamese government started pursuing state-directed agrarian restructuring, promoting the consolidation of small, scattered plots into larger farms through state-led land auctions and planned rural relocation programs.

In early 2025, President Donald Trump proposed a plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, threatening it with scaling back financial assistance from the USA if it refuses to accept the refugees. Egypt has remained cautious about accepting, while continuing to provide humanitarian aid. 

South Africa’s latest Expropriation Bill introduces cases where private land can be expropriated by the government without compensation, aiming to address land reform. In response, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to halt all future aid to South Africa until a complete investigation on the issue is completed.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front  (TPLF), the main force in Tigray’s war against Ethiopia’s federal government (2020–2022), signed the Pretoria Agreement in 2022 to end the conflict. At the time, it had a centralized leadership with limited internal power-sharing. After the agreement, it began to fragment with new parties and factions (e.g., Tigray Independence Party, Salsay Weyane Tigray, etc.) emerging in Tigray, some calling for Tigrayan independence and others pushing for different styles of governance.

Medicalization is the process of defining a phenomenon through medical language in order to categorize it as one that can be treated by medical services (eg.  gender affirming services).

Subtle social conflicts refer to non-physical, emotionally ambiguous interactions that involve exclusion, manipulation, or social imbalance rather than overt aggression. Some examples of such conflict include exclusion-based play, mocking/teasing masked as jokes, ignoring one child inside a group, etc.

In March 2025, the European Union intensified its antitrust actions against major U.S. tech giants (eg. Apple, Meta, etc.) for alleged violations of the Digital Markets Act. The DMA prohibits self-preferencing and requires interoperability. The companies face fines of up to 10% of their global revenue (20% for repeated violations) along with multiple lawsuits. 

The industrial park model for capital-only investments typically refers to a state-coordinated strategy where infrastructure, land, and basic utilities are concentrated within a designated industrial complex - often developed with government or public financing.

Enjo kōsai is a type of transactional relationship where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive young women in exchange for sexual favors in Japan.

While Enjo kōsai is not explicitly illegal, Japanese laws prohibit paying a person under 18 for obscene acts and juvenile delinquency.

Genetic engineering is the process of directly manipulating an organism's genetic material (DNA) to alter its traits. This involves introducing, removing, or modifying specific genes to achieve a desired outcome. 

Lab-grown meat companies refer to firms that produce animal meat by cultivating animal cells in bioreactors. Examples include Upside Foods, Mosa Meat, etc. 

On the other hand, whole-food plant-based (WFPB) systems focus on natural, minimally processed plant foods like vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds.

The Baloch movement is a nationalist movement seeking greater autonomy and independence for Balochistan, mainly in Pakistan. It stems from grievances over political marginalization, military repression, and control of natural resources. It is split between groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), which use violence to seek independence, and parties like the BNP (Balochistan National Party), which pursue autonomy through elections and legal means.

The BLA has historically resorted to destroying infrastructure, targeting security personnel, and sabotaging foreign investments. Most recently, in March 2025, they hijacked a passenger train, killed five officers, and injured many others.

After the Civil War ended in 2009, the Sri Lankan Military acquired vast swathes of land owned by the native minority Tamil population (around 30,000 acres) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Anura Dissanayake, the newly elected President of Sri Lanka promised to return back land to the Tamils in his electoral campaign.

Military bases like Palaly and Kankesanthurai are located in Jaffna, while Trincomalee and Sampur also host major military installations and are declared high-security zones.

The sequencing-first model of democratization refers to an approach where liberal-democratic institutions are developed by elites who had significant influence during the colonial era before electoral competition is introduced in nascent political systems. 

In contrast, the elections-first model prioritizes the rapid introduction of multi-party elections even if the necessary institutions to support fair and effective governance are underdeveloped.

For the purposes of this debate, "Franchise Loyalty" refers to players prioritizing to stay in the same team for an extended period of time. 

In the current NBA format, the NBA is structured into two conferences — the Eastern Conference (e.g. Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, etc.) and the Western Conference (e.g. Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, etc.) — with 15 teams in each, primarily organized based on geographic location. In the regular season, teams play 82 games where they face teams from the other conference two times and teams from the same conference three or four times. At the end of the season, teams are seeded based on wins in relation to teams within their respective conference. The top teams then proceed to the play-offs.

In the current playoff system, teams are seeded within their respective conferences based on regular season performance with the top 6 in each conference qualifying for the playoffs and the 7th-10th teams in each conference entering the Play-In Tournament where teams compete in a single elimination format to determine the lowest playoff seeds at each side of the bracket. In the current format, teams from the East and West can only face each other in the NBA Finals of the play-offs. 

In a single-league playoff system, the teams are seeded regardless of conference affiliation. Under this model, teams are seeded 1 through 16 based on the total number of wins (e.g., 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.) with the top 12 teams across the league qualifying for the playoffs, and the 13th-20th teams competing in the Play-In tournament. This format abandons the East West conference structure in the play-offs.

Several boxing associations—such as the WBA, WBC, and WBO—rank fighters and award titles. In boxing, fighters sign with a promoter who helps organize fights for them. Promoters are prohibited from creating their own rankings or titles. The industry includes many promotional companies, such as Golden Boy, Mayweather Promotions, Top Rank, and etc. Organizing fights between fighters usually involves negotiations among different promoters. 

Habeas corpus proceedings refers to proceedings where a court examines the legality of someone's detention. Primarily, a court order compels the custodian of a detained person to bring them before the court to determine if the detention is lawful.

Litigation finance refers to the practice of outside investors funding legal claims in exchange for a share of the proceeds if the case is successful. These funders cover legal costs such as attorney fees, expert witnesses, discovery, etc. Typical funders include hedge funds, private equity firms, and specialized litigation finance companies (e.g., Burford Capital, Omni Bridgeway).

In the USA, nationwide injunctions are court orders that bind the federal government, even in its relations with non-parties in a lawsuit, to stop enforcing a law or regulation. It stops the government from acting in a particular way nationwide, regardless of the specific geographic location of the lawsuit.

There are two systems for corporate sponsorship of research in universities. In a university-governance system, the university manages the commercialization process, with companies providing large-scale grants and partnering directly with the institution, which then respectively distributes funding to researchers. In contrast, in a researcher-governance system, companies fund researchers directly through giving grants to specific research or hiring and compensating faculty while they continue to operate within the university.