Oncase

Topicality

A. We meet – we deal with oil exploration, extraction and oil spills – that’s 3 distinct sectors.

B. Counter Interpretation

“Economic” includes lifts on single productsAskari 3 – Hossein, et al, Professor of International Business at George Washington University, Case Studies of U.S. Economic Sanctions: The Chinese, Cuban, and Iranian Experience, p. 1Sanctions are policy tools used by governments to influence other governments and/or firms and citizens in other nations. An economic sanction is a restriction on commercial relations between citizens and firms of at least two countries: those in the sender (the nation imposing the sanction) and those in the target (the nation upon which the sanction is imposed). Economic sanctions may

restrict commercial relations of third countries or third parties as well. Sanctions can include (1) trade embargoes that prohibit all merchandise and/or service trade between the sender and target, (2 ) more limited trade

bans on certain goods or services , (3) restrictions on investment and other financial flows, (4)

limitations on travel , and (5) limits on the transfer of nonfinancial assets between nations (as in the case of

technology transfer regulations).

Economic engagement means improving relations with the target country---includes the planHaass and O’Sullivan 2k Robert N, Director of Foreign Policy Studies and Meghan L, Fellow with the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Brookings, Survival, Vol 42, no. 2, Summer, p. 114-5Architects of engagement strategies can choose from a wide variety of incentives. Economic engagement might offer tangible incentives such as export credits, investment insurance or promotion, access to technology, loans and economic aid.3 Other equally useful economic incentives involve the removal of

penalties such as trade embargoes, investment bans or high tariffs , which have impeded economic relations between the U nited States and the target country. Facilitated entry into the economic global arena and the institutions that govern it rank among the most potent incentives in today’s global market. Similarly, political engagement can involve the lure of diplomatic recognition, access to regional or international institutions, the scheduling of summits between leaders – or the termination of these benefits. Military engagement could involve the extension of international military educational training in order both to strengthen respect for civilian authority and human rights among a country’s armed forces and, more feasibly, to establish relationships between Americans and young foreign military officers. While these areas of engagement are likely to involve working with state institutions, cultural or civil-society engagement entails building people-to-people contacts. Funding nongovernmental organisations, facilitating the flow of remittances and promoting the exchange of students, tourists and other non-governmental people between countries are just some of the possible incentives used in the form of engagement.

C. Standards

1. Limits – we reasonably limit out non-economic affs and more precisely define words in the resolution. They over limit – they take out any Venezuela case, and Cuban oil, which is most of the Cuba/Venezuela cases.

2. Predictability – we don’t set a bad precedent – we are a long ways from a cigar aff, make them prove actual in round abuse.

3. Ground – They didn’t lose any ground, we never no linked disads that defend the embargo, we do lift the embargo and the USFG is still the enactor of our plan. They had topic to run and there is topic to be ran.

D. Voters – Topicality is not a voter, no fairness or education was lost – evaluate topicality through a framework of reasonability

1. Good is good enough – as long as they had links for their arguments, don’t vote us down.

2. Competing interpretations is a race to the bottom, rewards the most limiting definitions not the best debate.

DisadMiddle East conflict won’t escalateMaloney ‘7 (Suzanne, Senior Fellow – Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Steve Cook, Fellow – Council on Foreign Relations, and Ray Takeyh, Fellow – Council for Foreign Relations, “Why the Iraq War Won’t Engulf the Mideast”, International Herald Tribune, http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/maloney20070629.htm , June 28, 2007)

Yet, the Saudis, Iranians, Jordanians, Syrians, and others are very unlikely to go to war either to protect their own sect or ethnic group or to prevent one country from gaining the upper hand in Iraq. The reasons are fairly straightforward. First, Middle Eastern leaders, like politicians everywhere, are primarily interested in one thing : self-preservation. Committing forces to Iraq is an inherently risky proposition , which, if the conflict went badly,

[and] could threaten domestic political stability . Moreover, most Arab armies are geared toward regime protection rather than projecting power and thus have little capability for sending troops to Iraq. Second, there is cause for concern about the so-called blowback scenario in which jihadis returning from Iraq destabilize their home countries, plunging the region into conflict. Middle Eastern leaders are preparing for this possibility. Unlike in the 1990s, when Arab fighters in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union returned to Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and became a source of instability, Arab security services are being vigilant about who is coming in and going from their countries. In the last month, the Saudi government has arrested approximately 200 people suspected of ties with militants. Riyadh is also building a 700 kilometer wall along part of its frontier with Iraq in order to keep militants out of the kingdom. Finally, there is no precedent for Arab leaders to commit forces to conflicts in which they are not directly involved. The Iraqis and the Saudis did send small contingents to fight the Israelis in 1948 and 1967, but they were either ineffective or never made it. In the 1970s and 1980s, Arab countries other than Syria, which had a compelling interest in establishing its hegemony over Lebanon, never committed forces either to protect the Lebanese from the Israelis or from other Lebanese. The civil war in Lebanon was regarded as someone else's fight.

Empirically deniedYglesisas ‘7 (Matthew, Associate Editor – Atlantic Monthly, “Containing Iraq”, The Atlantic, http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/09/containing_iraq.php, September 12, 2007)

Kevin Drum tries to throw some water on the "Middle East in Flames" theory holding that American withdrawal from Iraq will lead not only to a short-term intensification of fighting in Iraq, but also to some kind of broader regional conflagration. Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, as usual sensible but several clicks to my right, also make

this point briefly in Democracy: "Talk that Iraq’s troubles will trigger a regional war is overblown; none of the

half-dozen civil wars the Middle East has witnessed over the past half-century led to a regional conflagration." Also worth mentioning in this context is the basic point that the Iranian and Syrian militaries just aren't able to conduct meaningful offensive military operations. The Saudi, Kuwait, and Jordanian militaries are even worse. The IDF has plenty of Arabs to fight closer to home . What you're looking at, realistically, is that our allies in Kurdistan might provide safe harbor to PKK guerillas, thus prompting our allies in Turkey to mount some cross-border military strikes against the PKK or possibly retaliatory ones against other Kurdish targets. This is a real problem, but it's obviously not a problem that's mitigated by having the US Army try to act as the Baghdad Police Department or sending US Marines to wander around the desert hunting a possibly mythical terrorist organization.

On Case

Inherency

SQuo oil engagement efforts fail – the embargo jacks cooperation necessary for solving oil spills – Obama could take action but has failed to do so.Laverty et al 12 Collin Laverty, University of California,¶ San Diego¶ Graduate School of¶ International Relations and¶ Pacific Studies, Jake Colvin,¶ Vice President for Global Trade Issues at the National Foreign Trade Council¶ (NFTC), and Sarah Stephens, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy¶ in the Americas, both of whom have published extensively on U.S. foreign¶ policy and U.S.-Cuba relations, Winter 2012 | the Journal of International Policy Solutions, Volume XIV Winter 2012

How does current U.S. policy affect U.S.¶ oil companies’ involvement in the process?¶ JC: U.S. sanctions virtually prohibit American ¶ companies from participating in any activity ¶ related to drilling in waters controlled by ¶ Cuba . It is important to note that sanctions¶ on Cuba are extra-territorial, meaning that¶ the Government can attempt to apply them¶ on foreign companies with ties to the United¶ States, so it is not just American businesses¶ that may be affected. According to reports,¶ the Treasury Department has granted a license¶ to a small number of American companies¶ to assist remediation efforts in the event¶ of an environmental

disaster involving drilling¶ in Cuba, but very few of those licenses have ¶ been granted . ¶ In a world where companies rely on an increasingly ¶ integrated system of global suppliers , ¶ it would take a much more comprehensive ¶ effort from American companies to respond ¶ effectively to a disaster . The Obama administration ¶ has the ability under current law to ¶ issue a blanket license – in effect a permission ¶ slip – for American businesses to participate ¶ in remediation efforts and prepare for such an ¶ event, but it has not exercised that authority.

Embargo inhibits efforts to explore Cuban oilBMI 13 – (Business Model International, “Cuba,” Americas Oil and Gas, August 2013, Issue 87, Proquest)//Bwang

Problems in acquiring rigs underscore the challenges facing nascent exploration in Cuba on the back of continued US trade embargoes and sanctions. The restrictions prevent operators in the country from securing equipment from the US. As a result, firms are required to import goods from further afar, which

according to some estimates adds an additional 20% to exploration expenses, which are already steep giving the depth and geology. Current regulations prohibit the involvement of US companies and use of equipment with more than 10% US content.

General Solvency

Large untapped reserves in CubaSadowski ‘11Richard Sadowski is a Class of 2012 J.D. candidate, at Hofstra University¶ School of Law, NY. Mr. Sadowski is also the Managing Editor of Production of¶ the Journal of International Business and Law Vol. XI. “Cuban Offshore Drilling: Preparation and¶ Prevention within the Framework of the United¶ States’ Embargo” – ¶ Sustainable Development Law & Policy¶ Volume 12; Issue 1 Fall 2011: Natural Resource Conflicts Article 10 – http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1497&context=sdlp

A U.S. Geological Survey estimates that Cuba’s offshore¶ oil fields hold at least four and a half billion barrels of recoverable ¶ oil and ten trillion cubic feet of natural gas .29 Cupet, the¶ state-owned Cuban energy company, insists that actual reserves ¶ are double that of the U.S. estimate .30 One estimate indicates¶ that Cuba could be producing 525,000 barrels of oil per day.31¶ Given this vast resource, Cuba has already leased offshore oil¶ exploration blocks to operators from Spain, Norway, and India.32¶ Offshore oil discoveries in Cuba are placing increasing pressure¶ for the United States to end the embargo. First, U.S. energy companies¶ are eager to compete for access to Cuban oil reserves.33¶ Secondly, fears of a Cuban oil spill are argued to warrant U.S.¶ investment and technology.34 Finally, the concern over Cuban¶ offshore drilling renews cries that the embargo is largely a failure¶ and harms human rights.

Old studies wrong – large untapped reserves exist.Schenk ‘10Christopher J. Schenk is Project Chief of the U.S. National Oil and Gas Assessment – ¶ GEOLOGIC ASSESSMENT OF UNDISCOVERED OIL AND GAS RESOURCES OF THE NORTH CUBA BASIN, CUBA – http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1029/pdf/OF10-1029.pdf

The potential for undiscovered petroleum resources of the North Cuba Basin historically has focused on the heavy oil fields of the onshore fold and thrust belt (Echevarria-Rodriguez and others, 1991; Pindell, 1991; Petzet, 2000; Oil and Gas

Journal, 1993, 2000, 2002,¶ 2005), but recent efforts have focused on the offshore potential (fig.7) (Vassalli and others,¶

2003; Moretti and others, 2003a,b; Magnier and others, 2004). This study indicates that the offshore of the North Cuba Basin might have significant potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources (Schenk, 2008).

Extend my 1AC Evidence – US has the tech, know how, capital and willingness – that’s 8 minutes answering their no solvency args

Spills

Irreversibility means you shouldn’t take a chance with species lossChen 2000 (Jim, Professor of Law at University of Minnesota and Dean of Law School at Louisville, Globalization and Its Losers:, 9 Minn. J. Global Trade 157’ LexisNexis Legal)Conscious decisions to allow the extinction of a species or the destruction of an entire ecosystem epitomize the "irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources" that NEPA is designed to retard.312 The original Endangered Species Act gave such decisions no quarter whatsoever;313 since 1979, such decisions have rested in the hands of a solemnly convened "God Squad."314 In its permanence and gravity, natural extinction provides the baseline by which all other types of extinction should be judged. The Endangered Species Act explicitly acknowledges the "esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value" of endangered species and the biodiversity they represent.315 Allied bodies of international law confirm this view:316 global biological diversity is part of the commonly owned heritage of all humanity and deserves full legal protec- tion.317 Rather remarkably, these broad assertions understate the value of biodiversity and the urgency of its protection. A Sand County Almanac, the eloquent bible of the modern environmental movement, contains only two demonstrable bio- logical errors. It opens with one and closes with another. We can forgive Aldo Leopold's decision to close with that elegant but erroneous epigram, "ontogeny repeats phylogeny."318 What

concerns erns us is his opening gambit: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."319 Not quite. None of us can live without wild things. Insects are so essential to life as we know it that if they "and other land- dwelling anthropods ... were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months."320 "Most of the amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals," along with "the bulk of the flowering plants and ... the physical structure of most forests and other terrestrial habitats" would disappear in turn.321 "The land would return to" something resembling its Cambrian condition, "covered by mats of recumbent wind-pollinated vegetation, sprinkled with clumps of small trees and bushes here and there, largely devoid of animal life."322 From this perspective, the mere thought of valuing biodiver- sity is absurd, much as any attempt to quantify all of earth's planetary amenities as some trillions of dollars per year is ab- surd. But the frustration inherent in enforcing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has shown that conservation cannot work without appeasing Homo economicus, the profit-seeking ape. Efforts to ban the interna- tional ivory trade through CITES have failed to stem the slaugh- ter of African elephants.323 The preservation of biodiversity must therefore begin with a cold, calculating inventory of its benefits. Fortunately, defending biodiversity preservation in human- ity's self-interest is an easy task. As yet unexploited species might give a hungry world a larger larder than the storehouse of twenty plant species that provide nine-tenths of humanity's cur- rent food supply.324 "Waiting in the wings are tens of thousands of unused plant species, many demonstrably superior to those in favor."325 As genetic warehouses, many plants enhance the pro- ductivity of crops already in use. In the United States alone, the lates phylogeny" means that the life history of any individual organism replays the entire evolutionary history of that organism's species. genes of wild plants have accounted for much of "the explosive growth in farm production since the 1930s."326 The contribution is worth $1 billion each year.327 Nature's pharmacy demonstrates even more dramatic gains than nature's farm.328 Aspirin and penicillin, our star analgesic and antibiotic, had humble origins in the meadowsweet plant and in cheese mold.329 Leeches, vampire bats, and pit vipers all contribute anticoagulant drugs that reduce blood pressure, pre- vent heart attacks, and facilitate skin transplants.330 Merck & Co., the multinational pharmaceutical company, is helping Costa Rica assay its rich biota.33' A single commercially viable product derived "from, say, any one species among... 12,000 plants and 300,000 insects ... could handsomely repay Merck's entire investment" of $1 million in 1991 dollars.332 Wild animals, plants, and microorganisms also provide eco- logical services.333 The Supreme Court has lauded the pes- ticidal talents of migratory birds.334 Numerous organisms process the air we breathe, the water we drink, the ground we stroll.335 Other species serve as sentries. Just as canaries warned coal miners of lethal gases, the decline or disappearance of indicator species provides advance warning against deeper environmental threats.336 Species conservation yields the great- est environmental amenity of all: ecosystem protection. Saving discrete species indirectly protects the ecosystems in which they live.337 Some larger animals may not carry great utilitarian value in themselves, but the human urge to protect these charis- matic "flagship species" helps protect their ecosystems.338 In- deed, to save any species, we must protect their ecosystems.339 Defenders of biodiversity can measure the "tangible eco- nomic value" of the pleasure derived from "visiting, photograph- ing, painting, and just looking at wildlife."340 In the United States alone, wildlife observation and feeding in 1991 generated $18.1 billion in consumer spending, $3 billion in tax revenues, and 766,000 jobs.341 Ecotourism gives tropical countries, home to most of the world's species, a valuable alternative to subsis- tence agriculture. Costa Rican rainforests preserved for ecotour- ism "have become many times more profitable per hectare than land cleared for pastures and fields," while the endangered go- rilla has turned ecotourism into "the third most important source of income in Rwanda."342 In a globalized economy where commodities can be cultivated almost anywhere, environmen- tally sensitive locales can maximize their wealth

by exploiting the "boutique" uses of their natural bounty. The value of endangered species and the biodiversity they embody is "literally . . . incalculable." 343 What, if anything, should the law do to preserve it? There are those that invoke the story of Noah's Ark as a moral basis for biodiversity preser- vation.344 Others regard the entire Judeo-Christian tradition, especially the biblical stories of Creation and the Flood, as the root of the West's deplorable environmental record.345 To avoid getting bogged down in an environmental exegesis of Judeo- Christian "myth and legend," we should let Charles Darwin and evolutionary biology determine the

imperatives of our moment in natural "history."346 The loss of biological diversity is quite arguably the gravest problem facing humanity . If we cast the question as the contemporary phenomenon that "our descend- ants [will] most regret ," the "loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats" is worse than even "energy

depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war , or con- quest by a totalitarian government."347 Natural evolution may in due course renew the earth with a diversity of species approximating that of a world unspoiled by Homo sapiens - in ten mil- lion years, perhaps a hundred million.348

Collapse of marine biodiversity causes extinction- collapse of biological cycles, and uncertainty of the destruction takes ethical priority.Craig, Indiana University Professor of Law 3 [Robin Kundis, Winter 2003, McGeorge Law Review, “Taking Steps Toward Marine Wilderness Protection? Fishing and Coral Reef Marine Reserves in Florida and Hawaii”, accessed via LexisNexis 7/1/13]

Biodiversity and ecosystem function arguments for conserving marine ecosystems also exist, just as they do for terrestrial ecosystems, but these arguments have thus far rarely been raised in political debates. For example, besides significant tourism values - the most economically valuable ecosystem service coral reefs provide, worldwide - coral reefs protect against storms and dampen other environmental fluctuations, services worth more than ten times the reefs' value for food production. n856 Waste treatment is another significant, non-extractive ecosystem function that intact coral reef ecosystems provide. n857 More generally, "ocean ecosystems play a major role in the global geochemical cycling of all the elements that represent the basic building blocks of living organisms, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, as well as other less abundant but necessary elements." n858 In a very real and direct sense, therefore, human degradation of marine ecosystems impairs the planet's ability to support life.¶ Maintaining biodiversity is often critical to maintaining the functions of marine ecosystems. Current evidence shows that, in general, an ecosystem's ability to keep functioning in the face of disturbance is strongly dependent on its biodiversity, "indicating that more diverse ecosystems are more stable." n859 Coral reef ecosystems are particularly dependent on their biodiversity.[*265] ¶ Most ecologists agree that the complexity of interactions and degree of interrelatedness among component species is higher on coral reefs than in any other marine environment. This implies that the ecosystem functioning that produces the most highly valued components is also complex and that many otherwise insignificant species have strong effects on sustaining the rest of the reef system. n860¶ Thus, maintaining and restoring the biodiversity of marine ecosystems is critical to maintaining and restoring the ecosystem services that they provide. Non-use biodiversity values for marine ecosystems have been calculated in the wake of marine disasters, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. n861 Similar calculations could derive preservation values for marine wilderness.¶ However, economic value , or economic value equivalents, should not be "the sole or even primary justification for conservation of ocean ecosystems. Ethical arguments also have considerable force and merit. " n862 At the fore front of such arguments should be a recognition of how little we know about the sea - and about the actual effect of human activities on marine ecosystems. The United States has traditionally failed to protect marine ecosystems because it was difficult to detect anthropogenic harm to the oceans , but we now know that such harm is occurring - even though we are not completely sure about causation or about how to fix every problem. Ecosystems like the NWHI coral reef ecosystem should inspire lawmakers and policymakers to admit that most of the time we really do not know what we are doing to the sea and hence should be preserving marine wilderness whenever we can - especially when the United States has within its territory relatively pristine marine ecosystems that may be unique in the world.¶ We may not know much about the sea, but we do know this much: if we kill the ocean we kill ourselves, and we will take most of the biosphere with us. The Black Sea is almost dead, n863 its once-complex and productive ecosystem almost entirely replaced by a monoculture of comb jellies, "starving out fish and dolphins, emptying fishermen's nets, and converting the web of life into brainless, wraith-like blobs of jelly." n864 More importantly, the Black Sea is not necessarily unique.

Biodiversity loss causes extinctionDavid Takacs 1996 Philosophies of Paradise, The Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr., Baltimore)"Habitat destruction and conversion are eliminating species at such a frightening pace that extinction of many contemporary

species and the systems they live in and support ... may lead to ecological disaster and severe alteration of the evolutionary process," Terry Erwin writes." And E. 0. Wilson notes: "The question I am asked most frequently about the diversity of life: if enough species are extinguished, will the ecosystem collapse, and will the extinction of most other species follow soon afterward? The only

answer anyone can give is: possibly. By the time we find out, however, it might be too late. One planet, one experiment."" So biodiversity keeps the world running. It has value in and for itself, as well as for us. Raven, Erwin, and Wilson oblige us to think about the value of

biodiversity for our own lives. The Ehrlichs' rivet-popper trope makes this same point; by eliminating rivets, we play Russian

roulette with global ecology and human futures : "It is likely that destruction of the rich complex of species in the Amazon basin could trigger rapid changes in global climate patterns. Agriculture remains heavily dependent on stable climate , and human beings remain heavily dependent on food. By the end of

the century the extinction of perhaps a million species in the Amazon basin could have entrained famines in which a billion human beings perished. And if our species is very unlucky, the famines could lead to a

thermonuclear war , which could extinguish civilization.""

BioD collapse guarantees extinction – especially in the Florida Hotspot. Nautiyal & Nidamanuri 10 (Sunil and Rama Rao – Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources @ Institute for Social and Economic Change & Department of Earth and Space Sciences @ Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, “Conserving Biodiversity in Protected Area of Biodiversity Hotspot in India: A Case Study,” International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 36 (2-3): 195-200, 2010)The hotspots are the world’s most biologically rich areas hence recognized as important ecosystems

not important¶ only for the rich biodiversity but equally important for the human survival as these are the

homes for more than¶ 20% of the world’s population. India got recognition of one of the mega-diversity countries of world as the country¶ is

home of the two important biodiversity hotspots: the Himalaya in north and the Western Ghats in the southern¶ peninsula. Policy makers and decision takers have recognized the importance of biodiversity (flora and fauna) and¶ this has resulted to

segregate (in the form of protected areas) the rich and diverse landscape for biodiversity¶ conservation. An approach which leads towards conservation of biological diversity is good efforts but such ¶ approaches should deal with humans

equally who are residing in biodiversity hotspots since time immemorial. In¶ this endeavor, a study was conducted in Nagarahole

National Park of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, in Karnataka. Our¶ empirical studies reveal that banning all the human activities in this ecosystem including agriculture, animal¶ husbandry has produced the results opposite to the approach ‘multiple values’ of national park. To monitor the¶ impact, existing policies have been tested from an economic and ecological view-point. Unfortunately, the local¶ livelihoods (most of them belongs to indigenous tribes) in the area have received setbacks due to the¶ implementation of the policies, though unintentionally. However, the ecological perspective is also not showing¶ support for the approach and framework of the current policies in the hotspots. Satellite data showed that the¶ temporal pattern of ecosystem processes has been changing.

Relations

Extend my Brill and Luogo of 12 evidence – it would terrorists can gtet nukes and it will result in extinction. And Sid Ahmed 4 claims that even a failed attempt would cause extinction.

Their Russia turns is answered in our case, plus they provided no internal link. All they said was it would collapse relations, and that war was bad. There was no internal link. Ours is more fleshed out. And extend its non uniqueness, Russia is already hostile.