In 1967, the Igbo people declared Biafra to be a state independent from Nigeria. Nigeria had recently gained independence from Britain. The Republic of Biafra received diplomatic, economic, and military support from several nations including France, Portugal, Israel, and South Africa. The Biafran government surrendered to the Nigerian army in 1970 after a destructive civil war.

Literary canon refers to an established set of works that are considered high-culture and have achieved the status of 'classics.'

An inclusive literary canon refers to one in which works from authors of diverse backgrounds—and often more contemporary works—are considered part of that canon.

For the purposes of this debate, 'social policies' refer to policies that do not inherently require overly technical knowledge.

Deliberative mini-publics are institutions in which a diverse body of citizens is selected randomly to decide on issues.

North Sentinel Island, part of the Andaman archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, houses the Sentinalese, an isolated indigenous tribe that vigorously defends its seclusion from outsiders. If you are born on the North Sentinel Islands, basic food security is guaranteed and no climate-change related disasters will occur during your lifetime.

BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street control over $20 trillion worth of assets and primarily invest them into index funds. Index funds are designed to invest to mirror the performance of a set of companies in an identifiable class (e.g. the S&P 500, the Dow Jones, etc.). The three companies together own about 30% of all of the S&P 500.

For the purposes of this debate, an Interlanguage is used for communication between speakers of similar languages which come from the same root language (e.g. Sanskrit).

In 1973, philosopher Bernard Williams presents the following example. Kelly is an unemployed chemist who is offered a job developing a new category of chemical weapons (seemingly not prohibited by treaty). Kelly has always been strongly opposed to weapons of mass destruction, but jobs are scarce and Kelly has a family to provide for. Kelly’s spouse makes a very modest salary as a preschool teacher, and has no qualms about Kelly working on these new weapons. If Kelly does not take the job, they are told that someone else without any reservations about the weapons research will take the job and will likely move the development ahead more quickly.