For those not familiar with the process, the selection process for a college debate topic is lengthy and complicated. The first really important step is the announcement of a topic area, which will then guide the national Topic Committee in creating a series of actual topics for us to choose from.
The 2009 - 2010 topic area is US nuclear weapons policy — specifically, the extent to which we rely on nuclear weapons. What, exactly, does this mean we'll be debating about? The short answer is: we're not sure yet, because they haven't chosen a specific topic. If you want to get a better idea of the breadth of possible subjects in a nuclear policy topic, you can download the topic paper (written by two members of the Center for Strategic and International Studies) here.