At the core of policy controversies – both national and international - are normative ideas and principles.  Should policy be guided by ideas of social utility or of individual human rights?  How is spending on health services to be determined?  What are the claims of community against obligations to strangers?  What is it that binds a political association together and what are the conditions under which those bonds can be broken through secession?  What does it mean to say that citizens or states are free and what institutions are required by freedom?  How is state sovereignty to be balanced against the claims of human rights and the protection of minorities from abuse?This module explores how we ought to reason about such controversies.  In so doing, it aims to help students make up their own minds about these questions, and sharpen their skills of written and oral argumentation so that they can better reflect upon their convictions in arguments with different points of view.