Mission: The IRI's mission is to obtain, produce, and disseminate – in an ethical, supportive, enjoyable, and socially responsible manner – multidisciplinary knowledge about the world and international relations over time.

Vision: The IRI envisions a global scenario of intense transformation, where the rapid pace of technological evolution heightens risks but also presents opportunities for improvement in areas such as international security, economic development, the promotion of human rights, and environmental sustainability. In light of this context, the IRI seeks to contribute increasingly significantly to the efforts of the scientific community in the field of International Relations to provide individuals, organizations, and the broader Brazilian and international society with critical understanding and the capacity for intervention in the face of contemporary world challenges from a multidisciplinary perspective based on rigorous scientific methods.

Values: The IRI should guide its pedagogical processes by high standards of academic excellence, ethical commitment, transparency, social responsibility, appreciation and respect for diversity, and encouragement of the contribution and satisfaction of all who participate in or are reached by its initiatives.

The Institute of International Relations (IRI) was established in 2004 as a specialized institute and converted into a teaching unit in 2010, when it already included the Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (since 2002) and the Graduate Program in International Relations, offering master's and doctoral degrees (2009). The success of the Bachelor’s program – the highest rated in the country according to various national rankings – and, more recently, of the Graduate Program – which progressed to level 5 in the latest quadrennial evaluation by Capes – demonstrates the existence of demand for qualified training in International Relations, both in terms of the size and quality of enrollment in the courses. Teaching and research at the IRI are based on a multidisciplinary Academic Project, which starts from the premise that the study of International Relations requires knowledge of legal norms, power structures, conflict and cooperation agendas among actors, and flows of trade, finance, and investments, both in the present and from a historical perspective.

International Relations constitute the field of study par excellence of the IRI's Academic Project, being the central structuring element of the undergraduate and graduate courses offered by the teaching school. The investigation of International Relations topics occurs complementarily and as a result of the collective knowledge developed at the IRI, whether derived from Political Science, Law, Economics, or History. The set of research activities developed by the faculty brings together researchers from the IRI and other teaching schools, with diverse approaches to topics such as trade, human rights, the environment, international security, and global health. The IRI has stood out for a range of relevant activities from the perspective of scientific dissemination, as well as for its social impact on public policies. In recent years, its scientific output has evolved, both in terms of the quantity of publications and in terms of quality, stemming from the successful management of relevant research projects in the field. The IRI promotes basic research, devoted to studies on theory or methodology, and applied research, aimed at generating support for international public policies. The presence of a renowned Research Support Center (NAPs) – the Ibero-American Center (Ciba), responsible for managing the José Bonifácio Chair – acts as a catalyst for interdisciplinary research.

In the realm of culture and extension, the Multidimensional Security School (ESEM) was created in 2021, linked to the IRI, aimed at producing, organizing, and disseminating knowledge, best practices, and stimulating inter-agency and international cooperation in the fields of Public Security. The Support Center for Culture and Extension to disseminate the work of Brazil's National Truth Commission (NACE CNV-Brasil), created in 2021 and which has just inaugurated a permanent digital collection that will make available to society, by 2025, thousands of American documents on the 1964 coup and the Brazilian military dictatorship, and the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair, created in 2022 as a result of the relationship with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and aimed at promoting and disseminating international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and, in particular, international refugee law, are other examples of recent extension initiatives from the IRI that reach the entire University of São Paulo (USP) and the external community. In 2023, the Oswaldo Aranha Chair was created with the objectives of developing research and teaching activities related to the areas of Security and Defense, in light of contemporary challenges and in line with the activities developed at IRI-USP; producing articles, books, and original reports on the aforementioned areas; and contributing to the development of extension courses aimed at public agents in the areas of Defense, Security, and Criminal Justice.