The CIR is an associate member of the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA), a member of World International Studies Committee (WISC), and a member of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI). Individual CIR researchers are members or hold positions in a number of international associations, such as the Standing Group on International Relations of the ECPR, Presidency of the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA), European Association for Research on Services (RESER),  International Studies Association (ISA), European Community Studies Association (ECSA), European International Business Academy (EIBA), Academy of International Business and European Association of Development, International Political Science Association (IPSA), European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), International Law Association (ILA), and others.

The range of CIR activities and the interdisciplinary research have led to close co-operation with a number of researchers from different institutions in Slovenia, such as the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Economics, Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, the Centre for International Co-operation and Development, the Institute for Ethnic Studies, the Institute for Economic Research; and abroad, such as the University of Graz, Austria: Institute of International Law and International Relations, the University of Bergen, Norway: the Department of Comparative Politics, the University of Reading, the United Kingdom, and the Bradley University, Illinois, the United States of America.