I've had a look over the study design and decided to write a general sort of post about the changes and what I would focus on etc.
U3, Outcome 1
This is more or less the same as last years' U3 Outcome 1. You need to know about globalisation and the institutions thereof, but they have added the ICC. There seems to be a focus on New Medievalism with the focus on state sovereignty and the power of MNCs. With the dotpiont where you get a choice, I would advise to match up the group that you study here with the issue you study in the final AOS (e.g. if you plan to focus on terrorism, study a terrorist group here). The last dotpiont they want you to talk about fear of capital flight. You'll find that last years notes and resources for U3 AOS1 cover everything here, except for the ICC.
U3, Outcome 2
This is effectively the power in the asia pacific AOS from this year, but with the ability to choose Australia, and a study design which is specific to the country you choose rather than being written broadly to encompass all possible state selections. This is a lot up to personal choice, but I would advise choosing either Australia, China or the USA. You're able to quickly and easily find so much in depth analysis and discussion on the actions of the PRC and USA, and local newspapers will give lots of detial about Australia. Personally I would go with the USA or PRC as I found these the most interesting global players, however I would understand if you wanted to choose one of the other ones. It's very much personal choice here.
If you want to use notes/resources from this year, choosing the PRC would be the best option as the dotpoints are nearly identical to this year's Power int eh asia pacific AOS.
U4, Outcome 1
This looks like a really interesting outcome. There is a choice of what you study, and each of the options look very interesting. I can't really give much insight here, and my only advice would be to study which ever one you have a passion for and feel most interested in.
U4 Outcome 2
1. Once again you have a choice here. If you want to take advantage of past kids' notes and resources from international studies, I would recommend looking at terrorism and state conflict. HOWEVER, if you also do economics as a subject, then you would be silly to not choose Economic instability, even if your class isn't studying it. About half of the listed dotpoints are covered in the economics course, and some of it will also be covered in U3 Outcome 2 of Global Politics when you look at the IMF. That would add up to about 3 weeks of the course you would already know.
I would lean against picking terrorism as well. It's not that it wouldn't be interesting (it is) or that it's not relevant (it is), but with studying terrorism it's easy to fall into the trap of talking about September 11 and nothing else, or talking about al Qaeda and nothing else. If you study this, make sure to look at recent case studies and look beyond al Qaeda to groups like Hamas, the new IRA, Hezbollah (this one is interesting with regards to views on terrorism and defining terrorist groups) etc.