International debaters Dan Cristea and Mladen Petkov may not remember where they flew from every time they get off a plane, but they do know international politics.

Cristea and Petkov, who are exhaustively touring 15 American universities, recently lost their luggage in an airport because they could not remember the last city they had been in.

Cristea, invigorated by the experience, said he and his partner “kind of feel like rock stars.”

Cristea and Petkov participated in a debate titled “This House Believes the ‘Superpower’ is out of Control,” sponsored by NIU Forensics and the Department of Communication.

Cristea and Petkov, the affirmative team called “Government,” supported the resolution. Cristea comes from Romania, where he studies law and public relations. Petkov comes from Bulgaria, where he studied the Bulgarian and English languages.

Ioana Cionea and Christopher Carpenter, both communication graduate students and NIU Forensics coaches, represented the opposition.

John Butler, associate professor of communication and director of NIU Forensics, moderated the parliamentary-style debate.

Imitating British Parliament members, the debaters extended one arm while touching the backs of their heads with the other hand when they wanted to speak. A British Parliament member would hold his wig with one hand while extending his other arm, Cionea said.

The government argued U.S. geopolitics damage American-European relations.

Cristea, taking the role of the prime minister, asserted three main points: the United States does not work well with others, the American culture is aggressively spread and The United States fails to support international issues such as the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty which fights the greenhouse effect.

Cionea countered that the United States responds to the circumstances in which it is in, the United States is helping Europe develop and said the government’s claim of cultural imperialism was, “a superficial argument.”

Cionea, an international student from Romania, coached Cristea several years ago in Romania while he was a freshman in high school.

No winner was declared in this debating style, but Cionea takes pride in her protégé.

“I’d like to say that I am proud that he is proof of my coaching skills,” she said.