Vietnam BP Championship

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and verifiable credit history. For example, Grameen Bank operating in impoverished areas of Bangladesh provides such microcredits. These banks can implement high or low-interest rates without the intervention of the government.

A Cordon Sanitaire policy is an informal commitment to exclude extremist political parties from forming coalitions. Examples include the exclusion of the Front National in France, True Finns (The Finnish Far Right) from Finland, or the call to ban far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Uncertainty avoidance - measures the extent to which different cultures socialise their members into accepting ambiguous situations and tolerating uncertainty. So, in a culture that ranks high on uncertainty avoidance, people place a premium on job security, retirement benefits, and so on, while in a low uncertainty avoidance culture, people are more willing to take risks, and are less resistant to change.

For the purpose of this debate, a machine exists which would allow would-be parents to select personality and behavioural traits for their children. These traits are confirmed and are ingrained in their children from childhood well into adulthood, but are not necessarily unchangeable later in life.

"Techno-pessimism" is the belief that rapid and widespread use of technology in different industries is concerning and often negative. "Techno-optimism" is the belief that technology's impact is always positive and should be widely developed. For example, "techno-pessimists" call on heavy regulation on the research and development of Artificial Intelligence, while "techno-optimists" would call for its usage in various sectors including but not limited to; art, military, criminal policing, judiciary and manufacturing.

To reduce unemployment, governments use expansionary policies like increasing spending, cutting taxes, or lowering interest rates to boost demand and encourage hiring. For controlling inflation, they adopt contractionary policies, such as reducing spending, raising taxes, or increasing interest rates to limit excess demand and stabilize prices.

Examples of illiberal policies include but are not limited to: no-LGBT zones, preventing refugees from crossing your borders, and limiting the free speech of political oppositions.

The Korean Pop industry model (K-Pop) includes but is not limited to: trainees being recruited through competitive auditions and formed into boys/girls groups after strict and tedious training processes; a heavy emphasis on visual and appearance; an extensive market of goods; extensive fan service events and an emphasis on the idol(s) winning weekend music shows or weekly chart countdowns like Inkigayo and M Countdown. The Western Pop industry model shares certain similarities with K-pop such as a mix of different genres, a mix of groups/bands and independent artists, the competitive race in physical albums sales and digital streaming, etc., However, it has a lower Barrier of Entry to new artists, more focus on big awards like Grammy instead of various small music shows and less dependence on fan service events.

The letters of last resort contain orders on what action to take if an enemy nuclear strike has both destroyed the government and has also killed or otherwise incapacitated both the prime minister and their designated "second person" of responsibility, typically a high-ranking member of the cabinet such as the deputy prime minister or the first secretary of state. If the orders are carried out, the action taken could be the last official act of the government. For the sake of this debate, we shall assume that the two options are to retaliate with nuclear weapons, or to not retaliate. We are explicitly not considering options that foist off decision-making to another actor (like the submarine commander, or another nation).