Georgetown University Students Impress at Annual Qatar Debate Nationals Tournament

Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (SFS-Q) debating team geared up for the annual Qatar Debate Nationals Tournament as the incumbent, well-placed to retain the number one slot at Education City’s inter-university showdown. 

SFS-Q staff members Professor Betty Andretta, Dean Stoll and Sara Berhie offered moral support to the SFS-Q pairs who finished just shy of first place, with Arwa Elsanosi (SFS’14) and Eilin Francis (SFS’13) as the runners-up, while Safiullah Taye and Fahad Al Khater (SFS’15) and Dmitriy Frolovskiy (SFS’15) and Sahan Sahsuvarglu (SFS’13) completed the semi-finalist list.

With regard to individual scores, Aya Elwadia (SFS’13) placed 3rd, Eilin Francis (SFS’13) came in 4th, Arwa Elsanosi (SFS’14) placed 5th, while Safiullah Taye (SFS’12) occupied 6th place.

SFS-Q novice debaters demonstrated precociously keen analytical skills, with Dmitriy Frolovskiy (SFS’15) placing 2nd and Sahan Sahsuvarglu (SFS’13) ranking 3rd. 

The style of contention was British Parliamentary, differing from American debating forms, which resemble private bills in the U.S. Congress, and Canadian Parliamentary debate, which is brief. British Parliamentary format challenges the students with a grueling set of proposals and counter-proposals, requiring a high level of extemporaneous retention and well-developed argumentation skills.

The first motion under consideration was, “This house believes that governments of Developed Countries (DC) should incentivize international adoption from Least Developed Countries (LDC).” The tournament roster narrowed for the second motion, which tackled the hot topic of sports hooliganism while the third motion examined society’s obligation toward the poor. Finally, the debate was rounded off with a clash on the legitimacy of state initiatives in defining national cultural identity.

Eilin Francis (SFS’13) added that it was a “brilliant effort to develop the culture of debate among universities in Qatar, and a very successful one at that.” 

Sara Berhie, an SFS-Q Student Affairs Officer concluded, “This really is the culmination of a year of debate. Earlier on, a few of our students made the cut for the World Debating competition in the Philippines. Our students are very dedicated and this has made them into strong debaters, but we also acknowledge and are grateful to Qatar Debate for their full cooperation with Education City students, while giving them a sense of ownership of the league and a feeling of contributing to the promotion of a debating culture in Qatar. In this respect, Qatar Debate has been a useful resource for our students, a helpful partner to SFS-Q staff and a willing platform for the development of debating competencies year-round.”