Brings together recently published essays from the journal Contemporary Argumentation and Debate into a single volume. These essays explore current controversies in the theory of competitive academic debate. Grouped into several thematic areas, selected articles represent opposing viewpoints on significant in-round and out-of-round disputes regarding argument construction, refutation, and evaluation in the applied setting of academic debate. Thematic sections, each with an editor’s overview, include “Sources of support,” “Critical thinking,” “Causation,” “Fiat: the force of assumed action,” “Critiques of debate practice” and “New directions in policy debate.”