Brazil last fought a war in its region one hundred and fifty years ago, yet has the third largest land border in the world (with ten different countries), after Russia and China. This research group asks how the Brazilian state deals with this, and with other elements of its geopolitical situation, to craft its security, defence and foreign policies. It asks whose interests are served by those policies, what their impacts are, and how state managers balance concerns about external threats with those focused on domestic public security.