The Research Group in International Relations, Security and Defence, coordinated by Professor Mónica Dias, aims to stimulate the debate and promote research in the area through seminars, projects and other activities focused on the group's research interests. Currently, two Research Lines are associated with the Group:

• Maritime Affairs (LIAM), coordinated by Professor Sónia Ribeiro, which is divided into two areas, Oceans Geopolitics and Forecasting, coordinated by Professor Sónia Ribeiro; and Security and Defence in the Ocean, coordinated by Professor Francisco Proença Garcia. The projects developed within the scope of LIAM favour multidisciplinary and integrative approaches, through dialogue between different scientific areas, namely Law, Economics, Geopolitics and Prospective and Public Policy, but also Ecology and Marine Biology, among others. Over the years, several advanced training courses and projects have been organized.

• Peace and Civil Society (LIPSC), coordinated by Professor Mónica Dias. Created in 2020, the Research Line covers the areas of Peace Studies and Democracy Studies. The research developed aims to explore the contribution of civil society in promoting peace, as well as, in the opposite sense, the importance of a just peace for the development and consolidation of a free and plural civil society. It seeks to analyze and devise strategies for more sustainable peace, whether in the framework of UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions or in other initiatives in conflict and post-conflict situations. In this context, the analysis and research are particularly focused on the dynamics of local and very concrete initiatives on the ground (but linked to national and international networks), to study and debate various strategies for sustainable peace in the complex world order of the beginning of the 21st century.