NSA Affirmative Breakdown

Hello! If you're panicking because you have no idea what the NSA affirmative is saying or what it does, then you've come to the right place. Feel free comment or contact me and ask questions!

​Good luck - Victoria Stafford

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 I. Terms to Know:

NSA - This stands for the National Security Agency. The NSA is an intelligence agency apart of the United States federal government, responsible for surveillance.

Executive Order 12333 (XO 12333) - This is one of the things that governs NSA surveillance, and it's actually pretty scary. This executive order was put in place by President Reagan and basically allows the NSA to conduct foreign surveillance without warrants or congressional oversight. Surveillance done under the executive order is also protected from judicial review. The executive order precedes any judicial order, so the NSA doesn't have to comply with the judiciary branch.

FISA - This stands for the Foreign Intelligence Security Act. This is an act that grants the NSA power to collect information and surveil "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers." In short, this allows for the NSA to conduct foreign surveillance.

FAA - This stands for the FISA Amendments Act. This is what created Section 702.

Section 702 - This section mandates that any surveillance done under this section must be approved for a warrant. 

II. Plan: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its surveillance of information in the custody of American corporations by exclusively limiting surveillance to investigations carried out under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.

Translation: The NSA will be forced to get a warrant for surveillance of US-based companies. This also means the NSA has to prove that there is a good reason for surveillance in the first place.

III. Advantage 1: NSA Overreach

In summary: The NSA uses XO 12333 to conduct domestic surveillance through loopholes. → Companies are suspicious that the NSA is surveilling them. To avoid this, they start supporting data localization. → Data localization ends internet freedom and gives authoritarian countries the ability to regulate the internet in their areas and prevent democratic freedoms. → This harms global communication, which is crucial to discuss important issues, like politics and human rights. Data localization also harms the economy, because it inhibits countries interacting with each other easily. → This causes financial depressions similar to those that occurred before wars, which means that it will increase our chances of going into war.

IV. Advantage 2: Technological Leadership

In summary: NSA inhibits the cloud-computing industry (which is responsible for data storage programs, like iCloud and Google Drive and Dropbox) and "high technology" which are programs like IBM and Microsoft. This makes the United States less competitive in technology advancement compared to other countries around the world. → As a result, the United States will lose their status as being a leader in technology worldwide. → Technological leadership is important for the United States to maintain its hegemony, or global dominance. → If a hegemonic power declines, there is a power vacuum. This means that because there isn't a global leader anymore, other countries will compete to fill in that gap, which often leads to war.

V. Solvency

If the NSA is limited to using Section 702 to surveil US companies, this restores trust, because then the NSA would be required to get warrants before surveillance, not just surveil anytime and anything they want.