The International Affairs Review (IAR) launched its first weekly e-newsletter Monday. The IAR is a graduate student publication which publishes biannually in print and online, and it features analysis on current issues in the field of international affairs and foreign policy. The newsletter aims to draw more readers, both from GW and across the country, to the IAR’s online publication that started two years ago.

The Daily Colonial recently sat down with James Turitto, Editor-in-Chief of IAR online and a second year Masters candidate, to get the inside story- from creation of the newsletter to the current and upcoming interviewees that will be featured in the IAR.

DC: So, you are just now launching the e-mail newsletter, however the online version has been around for a while. What circumstances changed that made it possible to start the newsletter now?

JT:  While our website has been around for two years, we never really had a weekly publication. We had approximately five writers who updated the website, and four of the five graduated last year.

This year we aggressively campaigned for more writers, to have more content and expand the website. We sent out e-mails to all of the graduate students enrolled in the Elliott School, advertised, and held information sessions. Now we have over 30 writers. We want to have five to six articles a week to offer a broad spectrum.

DC: Will the newsletter be separate from the IAR online publication?

JT:  No, The newsletter will list clips from the articles with links back to our website. We’re using a program called MailChimp which will allow us to send our newsletter out to up to 500 subscribers for free.

The articles online will also appear in the print version of IAR, which we publish biannually.

DC: Your website says you interview policy makers and spotlight GW faculty. Who are featured in this week’s addition?

JT: I interviewed Jennifer Cooke, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), who discussed U.S. policy to Africa during the Obama administration, Ambassador Inderfurth, director of the International Affairs Program at the Elliott School, and a specialist on Afghanistan- Pakistan relations, and India, will be featured.

In the past we have interviewed Senator John McCain and John Woolsey, former CIA director.

DC: Any hint to who will be featured in upcoming editions?

JT: We’re seeking senators and talking to people on the Hill. We would like to possibly interview John Kerry about climate change , or Sen. Richard Lugar (Rep- ID) about nuclear non- proliferation.

DC: Do you have any goals for the future of IAR?

JT:  We would like to be more inclusive and interactive with the wider GW community, to engage everyone interested in international affairs. We want to expand readership, to reach more graduate and undergraduate students at GW, but also undergraduates across the U.S., from other graduate programs to see if students would like to submit to us.

We’re considering whether we want to open up to undergrads, or upperclassmen to write articles. We know there’s a big interest in getting published, not necessarily covering the news but providing opinion and analysis.

We want to help students develop arguments and writing skills on the issues they are learning about in classes.

Our goal is that we’re trying to create a forum for students to provide informed commentary and analysis.

The IAR’s weekly newsletter is available for sign-ups on their website : http://www.iar-gwu.org/.