Marlies Glasius conducts research and publishes articles in four areas: transnational activism in social movements and NGOs, international criminal courts, human security in violent conflicts and authoritarianism. In the coming years, she will primarily focus on research into the nature and viability of authoritarian governance in relation to globalisation. In 2012, the European Research Council (ERC) honoured Glasius' research entitled 'Authoritarianism in a Global Age' with the prestigious Advanced Grant.

Since 2008, Glasius has worked at the UvA and has been an associate professor of International Relations since 2010. She has been professor by special appointment of Citizens' Involvement in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations at the VU University Amsterdam since 2012.

In 2011-2012, Glasius was visiting professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) occupying the Jacques Leclercq Chair, and she was Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in spring 2012. Prior to joining the UvA, Glasius was researcher and lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 2001 to 2011, she was editor of the Global Civil Society Yearbook, and she was coordinator of the Human Security Study Group from 2003 to 2005. Glasius is the author of The International Criminal Court: A Global Civil Society Achievement (Oxford: Routledge, 2006).