Ana Isabel Xavier is an Assistant Professor in UAL and ISCTE-IUL and a Research Fellow in Observare-UAL, CEI-IUL and at the Research Centre of the Security and Defence at the Portuguese Military University Institute. She has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations, a Master degree in Sociology and holds a PhD in International Relations (European Studies), from the University of Coimbra with a dissertation entitled "The European Union and Human Security: a crisis management global player in search of a strategic culture?”. She was a member of the Jacques Delors European Centre Team of Trainers and a European Commission’s Team Europe engaging, for several years, in training activities on European Studies, Human Rights, Non-Formal Education and Citizenship. Since 2016, Ana Isabel Xavier is also part of the pool of trainers of the European College of Security and Defence in the CSDP Training for Eastern Partnership Countries and CSDP Reflection Seminar. From March 2015 to February 2017, served as Defence Policy Deputy Director in the Portuguese Ministry of National Defence. She was pro bono President of DECIDE (Youth Association of security, defence and citizenship auditors) and AACDN (Association of former auditors of the Defence National Courses). Ana Isabel Xavier is frequently enrolled in the portuguese media to comment on european and international politics: in the national public television, she is part of the international relations’ experts of a weekly programme called “Olhar o Mundo” (https://www.rtp.pt/play/p3107/e283018/olhar-o-mundo); she is also regularly invited by radio Antena 1 and TSF and a local radio broadcasting weekly programme called “European magazine” where she discusses european and international politics. Her main research interests and publications include the European Union, Security and Defence, Human Security, Human Rights and Globalization.  In 2015 she was awarded with the Marshall Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2013 she was a Fullbright fellow of the SUSI Institute on U.S. National Security Policymaking. In 2016, Ana Isabel Xavier received the “Cruz del Mérito Aeronáutico con Distintibo Blanco” by the Government of Spain, granted on the “basis of merits, works, actions, acts or distinguished services carried out during the performance of missions or services ordinarily or extraordinarily entrusted to the Armed Forces or related to Defense".  

Ana Mónica Fonseca is Assistant Professor at the Department of History at Iscte and, since 2022, director of the Center for International Studies at Iscte. Since January 2022, she has been the Director of the Master’s in Modern and Contemporary History and, between September 2019 and September 2023, Sub-Director of the Masters in International Studies. She is an integrated researcher at the Center for International Studies at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL), having been an elected member of its Scientific Committee between 2016 and 2022. Between 2006 and 2015 she was a research assistant (2006-2011) and researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IPRI-NOVA). She completed her Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary History in 2011 at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) with a thesis entitled "«The carnations need water now!» German Social Democracy and the Portuguese transition to Democracy (1974-1976)", which received the Honorable Mention of the Vitor de Sá Prize for Contemporary History 2012 and also the Honorable Mention of the Mário Soares-EDP Foundation Prize 2012. Her M.A. dissertation in History of International Relations (ISCTE-IUL), which received the Fundação Mário Soares Award in 2006, was published in 2007: A Força das Armas: The support of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Estado Novo (1958-1968) [Lisbon: MNE-ID, 2007]. Her research areas focus on transitions to democracy in Southern Europe, Portuguese-German relations during the Cold War and European social democracy, and the promotion of democracy. She has published regularly in national and international journals (Journal of European Integration History, Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences, Ler História, Relações Internacionais), and participated in several collective works.

Bruno Cardoso Reis is currently  deputy director of the ISCTE-IUL Center for International Studies. He is a guest advisor to the National Defense Institute and was involved in the working group to review the Strategic Concept for National Defense. He is an associate researcher at the Michael Howard Center for the History of War at King's College. He holds a Master's degree in Contemporary History from the Faculty of Letters University of Lisbon, in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in War Studies from King's College London. He has taught courses in History of International Relations, Security Studies, Multilateral Institutions, Globalization & Global Governance, Leadership & Grand Strategy. He has published more recently mainly on topics of  international history and international security, namely:  Decolonization, Détente and the Cold War in Southern Africa: Portuguese policy towards Angola and Mozambique (1974-1984), Journal of Cold War Studies [forthcoming]; Myths of Decolonization: Britain, France, and Portugal Compared in Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo & António Costa Pinto (Eds.), The ends of European colonial empires (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2015), pp. 126-147; The Myth of British Minimum Force in Counterinsurgency during the Campaigns of Decolonization. Journal of Strategic Studies, 34/2 (2011), pp.245–279; Transnational Terrorism and the Threat to the Southern Flank of NATO: The case of Daesh. Nação e Defesa, No.143 (2016), pp. 43-58: 227-250; with A. Mumford (Eds.), The Theory and Practice of Irregular Warfare. (London: Routledge, 2013). His book Salazar e o Vaticano (1928-1968). (Lisbon: ICS, 2007) received the Vítor de Sá award for contemporary history and the Aristides de Sousa Mendes prize for international relations.

Catarina Frois is Associate Professor (with Habilitation) at the Department of Anthropology . She is author of several books and scientific articles, both national and international, with a special emphasis in the study of security policies, incarceration, control and surveillance technologies.

Clara Carvalho (PhD Anthropology, ISCTE, 1999) is an Associate Professor at Iscte-IUL, department of Political Science and Public Policies. President of AEGIS (European Association of African Studies) (2015-2019) and director of the Centre of African Studies/ Centre of International Studies at ISCTE-IUL (2007-2016). As a Visiting Professor, she lectured at Brown University (US). She gave short courses at the universities of Lille (France), Rovira i Virgil (Spain), Mainz (Germany), Lomé (Togo), Libreville (Gabon), Cotonou (Benin), Amilcar Cabral (Guinea-Bissau), UP Maputo (Mozambique). She coordinated evaluation commissions for FCT, A3ES, Leiden University (as a member) and on development policies for Camões IP and Gulbenkian Foundation. She was PI in seven projects with competitive funding. Her main research interests are Development and African Studies, and she has published on development policies, focusing on gender, health, and education. She is the editor of the journal Cadernos de Estudos Africanos and director of the PhD program in African Studies.  

Giulia Daniele is Assistant Professor at the History Department of the University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte). She is Deputy Director of the Centre for International Studies (CEI-Iscte) and of the Master in International Studies (MEI) in the same university.  She completed her Ph.D. in Politics, Human Rights and Sustainability under a co-tutelle agreement between the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy) and the University of Exeter (UK) in 2012. She has conducted fieldwork researches across the Middle East and North Africa, especially in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Tunisia. She has also been engaged with international organisations and cooperation projects.  Her main research interests extensively cover the intersection of Middle East politics with a focus on Palestine and Israel, social movements, gender and feminist studies, conflict resolution, settler colonialism, and ethno-national narratives. Her first book is entitled Women, Reconciliation and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Road Not Yet Taken (Routledge, 2014 hardcover and 2018 paperback). Among her latest articles: "Intersectional Politics and Citizen Activism: An Israeli Mizrahi Feminist Lens" (Women's Studies International Forum, 2023), "Mizrahi Jews and the Zionist Settler Colonial Context: Between Inclusion and Struggle" (Settler Colonial Studies, 2020), "Political and Social Protests From The Margins: The Role of Mizrahi Jews in Israeli Grassroots Activism" (Etnográfica, 2019).

João Terrenas is Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of History, School of Public Policy, ISCTE-IUL and Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Beira Interior, where he is also the Director of the Masters in International Relations. He completed a PhD at the Department of Politics, University of York (2015-2020). He was Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of York (2016-2018) and Junior Visiting Fellow at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (2018) in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduating in International Relations at ISCSP-ULisboa (2011-2014), he completed an MA in Security Studies at Aberystwyth University (2014-2015).

Luís Nuno Rodrigues is a Full Professor in the Department of History at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, where he leads the Master’s and PhD programs in International Studies. He holds a PhD in American History from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in Modern and Contemporary History (specializing in the History of International Relations in the Contemporary Era) from ISCTE-IUL. He has been a Visiting Professor at Brown University, USA. He previously served as Director of the Portuguese Journal of Social Science, Director of the PhD in History, Security, and Defense Studies (in collaboration with the Military Academy), and Director of the ISCTE Centre for International Studies. His areas of expertise include the History of International Relations, Cold War History, 20th Century Portuguese History, and the History of the United States of America. He has supervised dozens of PhD and Master’s theses. He has organized over a hundred colloquia, conferences, and seminars and has presented papers at a similar number of academic events in Portugal and abroad. He is the author of 9 books, editor of another 8, and has published 55 book chapters or entries in collective works, as well as over 30 articles in academic journals. His work Kennedy-Salazar: The Crisis of an Alliance. Luso-American Relations between 1961 and 1963, published in 2002, received the Mário Soares Foundation and Aristides Sousa Mendes Awards. His most recent publications include the book Spínola, published by Esfera dos Livros in 2010, the collective work Perceptions of NATO and the New Strategic Concept, which he co-edited with Volodymyr Dubovyk, the article “Establishing a ‘Cultural Base’? The Creation of the Fulbright Program in Portugal,” published in 2017 in the International History Review, and the collective work L’Aviation et son impact sur le temps et l’espace, published in 2019 by Editions Le Manuscript.

Maria José Sousa (PhD in Management, with Aggregation in Management and Public Management), is a lecturer and researcher at ISCTE/University Institute of Lisbon. She was Pro-Rector  between March 2022 and January 2024, and a member of the scientific committee of the PhD "in Law and Economics" (Cycle XXXIX), Università degli Studi del Molise. Is a member of the Advisory Board of Banco Português de Fomento for Public Policies.  She took a postdoctoral position from 2016-2018, researching the area of digital education, with several publications in journals with a high impact factor (Journal of Business Research, Journal of Grid Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, and others). She worked as an expert in a European Commission project for the creation of a new category of digital skills to be integrated into the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). She was also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the PhD in Management at the European University, a Senior Researcher at the GEE (Strategy and Studies Office) of the Ministry of Economy Portuguese, responsible for Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship Policies, and Knowledge and Skills Manager at AMA, IP, Agency for Administrative Modernization (Ministry of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers) and a Project Manager at the Ministry of Labor and Employment, responsible for Innovation Projects and Qualification Assessment and Development Projects. Her research interests are currently in the public policies of Innovation and Research. She is the co-author of more than 180 scientific articles and book chapters (European Planning Studies, Information Systems Frontiers, Systems Research, and Behavioral Science, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, and others). She is guest editor of more than 10 special editions of Elsevier and Springer. She was President of ISO/TC 260 – Human Resources Management, representing Portugal in ISO - International Organization for Standardization. She has coordinated several European innovation projects (funded by programs such as Erasmus+, Horizon Europe and ICMPD) and is also an External Expert of COST Association - European Cooperation in Science and Technology.

Pedro Seabra is an Assistant Professor at Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon and Deputy Director of the Center for International Studies (CEI-Iscte). He holds a PhD in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations from the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS, ULisboa). Between April 2022 and April 2024, he worked as an Adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of National Defence of the XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal. Previously, he was a Researcher at the National Defence Institute (IDN), a Nuclear Security Fellow at the School of International Relations-Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), a SUSI Fellow of the US State Department and a Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellow of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). In 2022 he was selected as a Paris Young Defence Leader by the Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'Ecole Militaire (IRSEM) and as Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund of the US (GMF). In 2019 he was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of International Relations-University of Brasília, Brazil (IREL-UnB) and at Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII). Between 2013 and 2016, he was a Visiting Researcher at IREL-UnB, at the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, University of Pretoria, South Africa (GovInn-UP) and at ICS, ULisboa. His main research interests focus on international relations, international security, South Atlantic geopolitics, and security capacity-building in Africa and his publications verse on such topics as well as on Brazilian and Portuguese foreign and defense policy, Africa and Lusophone countries.

Roxana Andrei is currently an Integrated Researcher at CEI-ISCTE, specialised in International Relations, with a focus on Energy Security, Defence and Conflict Resolution. She holds expertise in the geopolitics of the Black Sea, Caucasus, Western Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Roxana is collaborating as an external expert with the European Union's Defence Agency in the field of protecting the offshore critical energy infrastructure in Europe. She previously worked for the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE, and holds a PhD in International Politics and Conflict Resolution from the University of Coimbra in Portugal.