What will security mean in 50 years—and who gets to decide? In an era marked by systemic volatility, rapid technological acceleration, and cascading global risks, the assumptions underpinning today’s security models are becoming increasingly fragile.

At this critical inflection point, we must look beyond immediate threats and short-term policy cycles to ask deeper, longer-range questions: What emerging forces will reshape conflict, safety, and resilience? What new vulnerabilities will be created by the technologies we’re only beginning to imagine?

Emergent Security Concepts is a future-focused initiative dedicated to exploring the long-term evolution of security. We convene a diverse community of researchers from across disciplines—social science, engineering, law, philosophy, design, and more—to investigate the complex, interdependent challenges that lie ahead. Our goal is not to predict the future, but to prepare for its possibilities: to identify latent risks, explore unconventional ideas, and surface novel approaches that would be missed by traditional security frameworks.

Through structured internal workshops, horizon-scanning dialogues, and speculative “sandpit” collaborations, we create a space where new paradigms can take shape. We challenge disciplinary boundaries and cultivate radically creative thinking, grounded in rigorous academic analysis. By fostering intellectual risk-taking and cross-sector insight, this programme aims to lay the conceptual groundwork for the security challenges of the next half-century.

This is security not as a static domain, but as an evolving question—one that demands imagination, humility, and foresight.