Welcome back to our wonderful team of editors and our dedicated readers.

I am excited to bring you 2017’s first edition of Quarterly Access. After a short break the team have come together to bring you the latest in perspectives and thoughts from some of Australia’s best and brightest students and young professionals in International Relations.

Firstly I’d like to introduce a new feature of QA call “Looking Into”. This is a hard and fast facts segment of the journal where young writers will place the spotlight on a developing issue. Our first “Looking Into” features a summary on the state of Rojava and the plight of Kurdish Syrians. Contributing author, Sam Brennan, lays out the key points of this story and some future struggles that Kurdish Syrians will be faced with in 2017.

Cassandra Cohen presents a rather unique article on urban development, and Australia’s Smart Cities Plan. As an attendee at UN Habitat III conference in 2016, Cohen provides readers with future ways Australia can adapt its plan to meet its Sustainable Development Goals in 2030.

During the holidays, Tamara Tubakovic (deputy editor) and I came together to give readers an insightful and in-depth analysis of the Refugee crisis in Europe. Meeting with Lesvos Legal Centre worker, Victor Roman, for an interview regarding the day-to-day struggles in the islands’ main camp Moria, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of how the issues on the ground are unfolding.

Maria Tanyag jumps on the unfolding (but not very surprising) issue of the recently reinstated Global Gag Rule. She provides a rich case for how the GGR has been used throughout many republican administrations to curtail the freedoms and rights of women globally.

Ben Reeson engages in the ongoing and highly debated issue of media in intervention and its role in shaping public opinion. Taking readers through several case studies, Ben shows how media has both positive and negative effects on society’s understanding of issues, and the influence this can have on government policy and decision-making.

As always, thank you to our brilliant team of editors.

Happy Reading,

Nina Roxburgh, Editor-in-Chief