Alex+&+Joe

toc Any further questions? Please email Joe (2A) at saxman11952@gmail.com and Alex (2N) at ktop94@gmail.com. =Affirmative=

1AC - Tunnel of Love
__Not since Yuri Gagarin orbited …__ of Russia and North America. The minor problem that, at present, neither railway network goes anywhere near the Bering Strait only adds to the excitement. On the Russian side a 500-mile link is being built from the Trans-Siberian Railway to Yakutsk, more than 3,000 miles east of Moscow. But this would have to be extended a further 2,400 miles through some of the most savage terrain in the northern hemisphere. And on the Alaskan side the challenge would scarcely be any easier, especially as Alaska's railways aren't connected to any others in North America. __Yet the Russians, Canadians and …__ East-West co-operation seemed feasible. Now, however, it seems not just feasible but economically enticing. Experts say that a Siberia-Alaska rail link could carry a huge amount of the world's freight much more cheaply, quickly and cleanly than supertankers or juggernauts do. That's important. __But what really …__ York as a 90th birthday treat.
 * In 1905 Czar Nicholas II approved the Bering Strait tunnel project – all plans were dashed after WWI and the Russian Revolution as the world plunged into a century of war, hate, and great power competition – with its recent approval from the Kremlin, the Bering Strait plan has been revitalized as a unique act of imagination which recalls inspiring science fiction of the past—it’s a symbol of hope for global cooperation**
 * MORRISON 2011** (Richard, “A train trip from Moscow to New York?; The proposed construction of a tunnel linking the rail networks of Russia and North America is a brave new world indeed,” The Times, August 26, lexis)

**ENGERMAN 2003** (David, Engerman is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University, Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development, p. 7-11) American ideas about Russia's predominantly … __—Soviet enchantment with increasing disdain__ .17 Enthusiasm for Soviet industrialization did not require a Party card, either in the United States or in the Soviet Union. Many Russians who praised rapid modernization were not Bolsheviks. So-called bourgeois agricultural experts, engineers, and economists in Russia all found reasons to endorse Soviet goals of collectivization and industrialization. Other Russians leapt at the chance to turn their motherland into a modern great power, meaning an industrial one.18 Western observers, too, appreciated the Bolsheviks' claims about a rationally organized society under the guidance of specialists like themselves. Such enthusiasm also existed outside … views and divergent personal experiences.
 * Unfortunately, American perceptions of Russia vacillate between extremes of cultural relativism and economic universalism. Current attitudes towards Russian technological projects stems from an unresolved mix of contempt and fascination**

__...The Bering tunnel is a typical example of Russian folie de grandeur__ __Isn't it wonderful? We'll be …__ due to start this year. Valeri Polyakov, the world record-holder for space flight longevity and deputy director of a Moscow "medico-biological" institute, told Tass with the confidence of one who has, indeed, spent too long in orbit that it's only a matter of time before cosmonauts colonise both the Moon and Mars. An atomic energy official from the far north unveiled fetching balsa models of floating nuclear power stations bringing warmth and light to Russia's most miserable Arctic ports. And then there are the longstanding plans to transport Russian nickel ore around the world in refurbished nuclear submarines, and to link St Petersburg to Helsinki with a series of causeways and suspension bridges. Of these, the only sensible proposal is the last one, and I made it up. The rest are real, and they reveal much about the Great Russian Pickle with which George W. Bush must soon concern himself - however little he wants to. He should not be surprised … him in far too long. In similar vein, The Los Angeles Times reported this week that a certain Mikhail Puchkov is still piloting a home-made mini-submarine in the Gulf of Finland 20 years after he built it, initially with pedals only, as a personal rebellion against the dead hand of Brezhnev. "I was not satisfied with the fate that was laid out for me," he said. __Some organise their own distractions. … would travel along a Bering tunnel__.
 * This is particularly true of the Bering Strait tunnel. An article in one of the West’s most prestigious newspapers exemplifies the condescending stereotypes of Russian madness that are applied to the Bering Strait plan. Russians are depicted as irrational zealots, obsessed with dreams of gigantic megaprojects despite their backwardness and inferiority, yet even this critic feels the pull of imagination in the Bering Strait tunnel**
 * WHITTELL 2001** (Giles, “Oh no, Ivan, spare us another big idea,” The Times, Jan 6, lexis)

**This example represents a broader trend of pitting Russia against the United States which spills over into our daily lives. The effect of Russian stereotypes outweighs topic education—we will forget the details we learn but retain a general impression of Russia** Numerous analysis have argued that __… signify events in a particular way__.
 * WASHBURN AND BURKE 1997** (Philo, Purdue University, and Barbara, U of Minn Morris, “The Symbolic Construction of Russia and the United States on Russian National Television,” Sociological Quarterly, September)

These questions redounded around the … __on what made Russians different__. Herzen himself illustrated the double-edged nature of such characterizations. Living in France and Italy in the 1850s, he gained new perspective on Russian character. He frequently mentioned the "Slavic genius" that set his compatriots apart from Europeans, focusing especially on Russians' soulful and communal natures. Yet he also took for granted that Russians^—especially the peasants who constituted the vast majority of the population—were "improvident and indolent," better at "passive obedience" than political or economic activity.5 Difference did not necessarily mean superiority. __Americans' notions of Russian character …__ American writings until the 1920s.
 * Depicting Russia as a foreign Other located in a distant Asia apart from the West and incapable of technological transformation encourages violence and constructs an enemy relationship**
 * ENGERMAN 2003** (David, Engerman is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University, Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development, p. 2-4)

**These cultural discourses determine policy towards Russia** The term ‘critical geopolitics’ had … __dehistoricises, degeographicalises and depoliticises knowledge__.
 * VAN EFFERINK 2010** (Leonhardt, MSc in Financial Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MA in 'Geopolitics, Territory and Security' at King’s College London. He is now working on a PhD with Royal Holloway’s (University of London), “Polar Partner or Poles Apart?” PSA Graduate Network Conference December 2010, http://www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/51/2010/Ppr/PGC2_Van%20EfferinkLeonhardt_Polar_Partners_or_Poles_Apart_PSA_2010.pdf)

__Russophobia today is__ therefore __rooted__ … __or later **find them everywhere**__.
 * Otherization of Russia results in real hostility**
 * LIEVEN 2001** (Anatol, Senior Associate for Foreign and Security policy at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Against Russophobia,” World Policy Journal, Winter, http://www.worldpolicy.newschool.edu/journal/lieven.html)

__Ever since the Cold War … irrationally, irredeemably savage and wicked__
 * Interrogating our perceptions of Russia is key to good foreign policy education overall—the same condescending discourses are spread to others**
 * LIEVEN 2001** (Anatol, Senior Associate for Foreign and Security policy at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Against Russophobia,” World Policy Journal, Winter, http://www.worldpolicy.newschool.edu/journal/lieven.html)

**That makes extinction inevitable—survival is only possible by imagining our connections to others** The two major problems that … __get beyond hostility to kinship__.
 * KEEN 1986** (Sam, author, contributing editor of Psychology Today, Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination: The Psychology of Enmity, p. 135-136)

**Joe and I ask you to imagine that the United States federal government increases its investment in transportation infrastructure in the United States necessary to complete a fixed-link Bering Strait crossing.**

'North by Northwest', now __it …__ Bering Strait Tunnel & Railroad Group (IBSTRG), 2006. The spectrum of questions asked …. **This is the crossing point**.
 * We must take a leap of imagination—the Bering Strait link is being killed by focus on the details of implementation and the fear of risk. We should start by imagining the crossing, not by debating how government policy is implemented**
 * OLIVER 2007** (James, writer and journalist, The Bering Strait Crossing: A 21st Century Frontier Between East and West, 216-219)

**Our framing of the aff is a bridge to others—we explore the tension between universalism and relativism in Western perceptions of Russian infrastructure projects** **ENGERMAN 2003** (David, Engerman is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University, Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development, p. 13-14) Considering questions of economic progress … of cultural difference and modernization.

**The plan is a utopian imagination of technology asserted against the gradual erosion of hope that accompanies the focus on detail. Reclaiming the narrative of technological utopianism does not mean embracing all technologies, but it does prevent the destruction of all human meaning** Mannheim concludes his analysis of … Bowman in Solaris and 2001 respectively.
 * Leong 2003** (Leong Hang-tat, Ph.D. candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in philosophy, “Ideology and Utopia in Science Fiction”, ProQuest) BW

__Transcultural theory needs to articulate__ … species must become his own."1 Bur there is much more to this imaginative aspect of ethics than just identifying oneself with others. Two modifications may be added to the golden rule to embrace those aspects of ethics that are not reducible to a commonness between myself and others, between the subjects and objects of ethical actions.  The first addition would refer to the uniqueness of the ethical subject as distinct from the ethical object. "Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. . . but as nobody else could do unto them except for us." The uniqueness of the ethical subject would be crucial in cases when among the many needs of others are those to which the given subject is uniquely or exclusively qualified to respond. The action that will be ethically preferable is that which no one can accomplish except for me and that which no one can do better than me. Since I am different from the other, the ethical relationship between us should be based on our mutual irre-ducibility. The basic rule of differential ethics thus can be formulated in this way: Do what no other person in the same situation could do in your place. Act in such a way that your most individual abilities meet the most individual needs of the other. This is also true for our expectations from other people. Not only what we do to others, but whar we expect them to do for us, is an ethically marked position. A totalitarian politics that forced a violinist to take an ax and cut wood to provide heat during an energy shortage was ethically reprehensible though it claimed to be truly humanistic as expressing equal concern about the needs of all people. From the standpoint of the ethics of difference, the musician should not only be allowed but encouraged to respond to those specific needs of people that he is in a unique position to answer. Reduction of individual abilities to the more general needs is what underlies the crude, politically dominated ethics of "mass societies." Thus __an ethical subject has …__ other and address the other."- Judeo-Christian ethics is focused on the notion of "neighbor," the nearest and closest one; but what about love of, or at least responsiveness to, the distant ones? Nietzsche attempted to introduce this imperative— "love to a distant one"—into ethics but his anti-Christian stance caused him to ignore love for those nearest and actually grew into contempt toward his own "neighbors"—contemporaries, compatriots, colleagues, co-humans, and others in proximity. It is interesting that although Soviet ethical doctrines never explicitly acknowledged Nietzsche's influence, they were based on a similar principle: The distant ones were privileged over neighbors in the value hierarchy of a typical Soviet citizen. He had to love his comrades, his class brothers, and the exploited toiling masses all over the world but was required to denounce his family members on the basis of their disloyalty to the state. Soviet ethics was devoid of imagination and did not recognize the right of model citizens to multiple identities or alterations of identity. In fact, love for distant … the capacities of the imagination.
 * Our call to imagine what the government might do forces us out of our current subject position—the ability to imagine another role is the foundation of ethical engagement with the Other**
 * EPSTEIN 1999** (Mikhail, Associate Professor in the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University, Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication, p. 164-166

**The policy interpretation of fiat makes ethical engagement with others impossible. We should imagine possibilities rather than legislate commands** Though ethics is usually presented … **__ourselves as possibilities for others__**.
 * EPSTEIN 1999** (Mikhail, Associate Professor in the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University, Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication, p. 166-168)

// According to many polls, a majority … that threatened the status quo. //
 * Reimagining technology is critical to overcome threats to human survival—we must imagine an alternative technological society that brings us together in a common project**
 * Fresco and Meadows 07** (Jacque & Roxanne; Structural designer, architectural designer, philosopher of science, concept artist, educator, and futurist, founder of The Venus Project; B.F.A. from Maryland Institute of Art. She studied technical and architectural rendering and model making under Jacque Fresco for 4 years; “Designing the Future”)//RSW//

// **Every act of imagination has elements of science fiction—the very nature of fiat makes describing the “real world” impossible since every plan is a fictional alternative** // //**FREEDMAN 2000** -- Associate Professor of English at Louisiana State University (Carl, “Critical Theory and Science Fiction” Wesleyan University Press, University Press of London, 20-22) // // It is a priori likely that __…__// Star Wars // on the other.

This view of the state … __–and that they sometimes claim.__
 * Traditional conceptions of government fiat are also fiction, they simply present themselves as fact—fiat misrepresents the process of government decision-making, which means it’s neither educational nor predictable**
 * CLAUDE 1988** (Inis, Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia, States and the Global System, pages 18-20)

**Our model of fiat is better for policy-making—we should imagine alternative worlds even if they’re technically impossible, which means you should vote aff even if the Bering Strait tunnel is impossible**
 * LIPPARD 2010** - Sr. Security Product Manager for … __ideas about the technologies themselves.__

**Our act of imagination shapes world politics—representations create the world and are inextricably linked to policy** But this is at best a … of the world” (2001: 132, emphasis added).
 * WELDES 2003** – Senior Lecturer, Bristol University; PhD (Minn) (Jutta, “Popular culture, science fiction, and world politics: exploring inter textual relations” in “To seek out new worlds: science fiction and world politics” ed. Weldes, Palgrave Macmillan 2003, 12-13)

1AC - NIB

 * Thus, the plan: The United States federal government should establish a national transportation infrastructure bank focused solely on substantially increasing its investment in transportation infrastructure.**


 * Contention One is the Economy ---**


 * We will isolate 3 internal links ---**

Donohue 11 --- president and chief executive officer of the US Chamber of Commerce (9/8/2011, Thomas J., Christian Science Monitor, “The highway to jobs - via better infrastructure,” Factiva, JMP)
 * __First is declining infrastructure__ --- it is undermining the __foundation__ of the U.S. economy**

As Obama and Congress talk … to the challenge, we are.


 * This negatively influences the __entire economy__ --- prevents a __resilient__ supply chain**
 * Little 11** --- Director, Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy (4/5/2011, Richard, “Infrastructure Investment and U.S. Competitiveness,” [], JMP)

__The massive network of seaports, … economic decline and its consequences.__


 * __Second__ is stimulus ---**

Skidelsky & Martin 11 --- *Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, AND **macroeconomist and bond investor** ** (3/30/2011, Robert Skidelsky and Felix Martin, New York Review of Books, “For a National Investment Bank,” [], JMP) **
 * Confidence is collapsing now and destroying investment --- a national infrastructure bank is the __best short term stimulus__ that __doesn’t drive up the deficit__**


 * But could a National Investment Bank … and other long-term investors. **

The economy won’t recover quickly or sufficiently enough on its own --- A national bank will stimulate the economy and boost jobs
 * Skidelsky & Martin 11 --- *Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, AND **macroeconomist and bond investor (3/30/2011, Robert Skidelsky and Felix Martin, New York Review of Books, “For a National Investment Bank,” [], JMP)

President Obama is in a bind. … bring to the//broader economy//.

Tyson 11 --- Chan Chair in Global Management at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business (Laura D., “A Better Stimulus Plan for the U.S. Economy,” [], JMP)
 * Studies prove the plan is a __uniquely beneficial__ form of stimulus**

Although stimulus spending is a politically … come to make it happen.


 * __Third__ internal link is unemployment ---**

Tyson 11 --- professor at the Haas School of Business at Cal Berkeley and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and the head of the National Economic Council under President Clinton (8/18/2011, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, “What it will take for President Obama and big business to bring back American jobs,” [], JMP)
 * This is triggering a major economic crisis --- outweighs the deficit and is best solved by the plan**

The //immediate crisis// confronting the U.S. … of Americans who need a job.

Rahman 11 - former Ambassador and Chairman of the Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies. (Ashfaqur . “Another global recession?”. August 21. http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=199461)
 * US is key to the global economy**

Several developments, especially in Europe … double dip or W-shaped recession.


 * Economic decline triggers nuclear war**
 * Harris and Burrows 9** (Mathew, PhD European History at Cambridge, counselor in the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Jennifer, member of the NIC’s Long Range Analysis Unit “Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical Effects of the Financial Crisis” [])

Increased Potential for Global Conflict … __a more dog-eat-dog world.__


 * Independently, slow growth makes the US uncooperative and desperate – leads to hegemonic wars**
 * Goldstein 7 ** - Professor of Global Politics and International Relations @ University of Pennsylvania, Avery Goldstein, “Power transitions, institutions, and China's rise in East Asia: Theoretical expectations and evidence,” Journal of Strategic Studies, Volume 30 , Issue 4 & 5 August 2007, pages 639 – 682 **NOTE—Robert Gilpin is a scholar of International Political Economy and the professor emeritus of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University**


 * Two closely related, though distinct, … prior to the possible crossover__ . __ 19 pg. 647-650 **

Growth eliminates the only rational incentives for war Gartzke 11 ** – associate Professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego PhD from Iowa and B.A. from UCSF Erik, "SECURITY IN AN INSECURE WORLD" www.cato-unbound.org/2011/02/09/erik-gartzke/security-in-an-insecure-world/ **


 * Almost as informative as the …, that __war becomes a durable anachronism.__**

The plan will revive confidence in demand and spur a self-sustaining private sector recovery
 * Skidelsky & Martin 11 --- *Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, AND **macroeconomist and bond investor (3/30/2011, Robert Skidelsky and Felix Martin, New York Review of Books, “For a National Investment Bank,” [], JMP)

Such are the principles of … a //self-sustaining private sector recovery//.

Tyson 11 --- professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley (6/3/2011, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, NYT Blogs, “The Virtues of Investing in Transportation; Economix,” Factiva, JMP)
 * __Transportation infrastructure investment__ is key --- spurs critical public-private partnerships.**

__Years of underinvesting in the … returns on scarce investment dollars.__


 * And, it __immediately__ boosts employment and growth**
 * Zakaria 11** (6/13/2011, Fareed, “Zakaria: U.S. needs an infrastructure bank,” [], JMP)

President Obama has proposed a number … the biggest payoff of all.


 * Contention Two is Competitiveness ---**


 * The plan alone is key to US economic supremacy**
 * AGC 11** (5/19/2011, The Associated General Contractors of America, “THE CASE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE & REFORM: Why and How the Federal Government Should Continue to Fund Vital Infrastructure in the New Age of Public Austerity,” [], JMP)

It also is important to … they can meet those standards.


 * Lack of __federal__ leadership __erodes__ US competitiveness and global leadership**
 * Buchanan 9** --- Associate Professor at The George Washington University Law School, and a former economics professor (11/19/09, Neil H., “Why the U.S. Government Must Invest in Infrastructure Now, Or Pay A Steep Cost, [], JMP)

Recently, I returned from a trip to … __less about the____U__ nited __S__ tates.


 * It also wrecks U.S. global __economic leadership__**
 * Alessi 11** (9/8/2011, Christopher, “Banking on U.S. Infrastructure Revival,” [], JMP)

U.S. President Barack Obama is …, in a July 12 New York Times op-ed.


 * Strong US growth is key to promoting an American economic model – the alternative is mercantilism, which destroys economic cooperation**
 * Posen 9** - Deputy director and senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (Adam, “Economic leadership beyond the crisis,” http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/foresight/documents/PN%20USA_FINAL_LR_1.pdf )

In the postwar period, US … on the following priority measures.


 * The impact is global nuclear war**
 * Freidberg & Schonfeld 8** --- *Professor of Politics and IR at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, AND **senior editor of Commentary and a visiting scholar at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton (10/21/2008, Aaron and Gabriel, “The Dangers of a Diminished America”, Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122455074012352571.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)**


 * __With the global financial system …__ tag of continued American leadership. **

Contention Three is Solvency ---

A scaled-down NIB generates the private capital necessary for infrastructure investment --- that makes it more palatable for Congress Lovaa 11** --- Federal Transportation Policy Director for NRDC (6/28/2011, Deron, “An Infrastructure Bank for Transportation,” [], JMP) **


 * Another creative funding idea that’s … __vastly improve the status quo.__**

A national bank will overcome failures endemic to the current system of funding transportation infrastructure --- lack of cooperation and insufficient resources make federal action necessary for __large-scale__ projects McConaghy & Kessler 11** --- * Director of the Third Way Economic Program, AND **Vice President for Policy at Third Way (January 2011, Ryan McConaghy and Jim Kessler, “A National Infrastructure Bank,” [], JMP)

America’s economic future will hinge … **__to make enduring infrastructure investments.__**

Thomasson 11 --- Director of Public Policy, Progressive Policy Institute (10/12/2011, Scott, Congressional Documents and Publications, House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Hearing - "National Infrastructure Bank: More Bureaucracy and More Red Tape," Factiva)
 * Federal action is superior --- better evaluation, finance, and reduced borrowing costs**

Myth #6: We don't need a national … state banks is //entirely misplaced//. =Negative= Previous 2NR's: T-Maintenance T-Infrastructure Jackson Vanik + Case Framework Food Prices DA + Case Anthro K