Security is a moving target. Its meaning shifts era to era, and its interpretation depends on who’s asking and what they’re most afraid of losing. Horizon 2045’s Security & the Future: 2030 Scenarios makes this vivid by imagining three alternative futures branching off from the same starting point—the year 2024. Read Redefining Security for the Future to see what each scenario reveals about what societies choose to protect—and what it might mean for the decisions we're making today.

07/2026

In 2023, a group of fellows convened by N Square was asked to engage in a thought experiment: what becomes possible if nuclear weapons are removed from the human story? Fifty years after an imagined disarmament date of 2045, how might the world be organized in their absence? The result, An Operating System for the 22nd Century, is a catalog of eight interlocking systems—new forms of security, citizenship, energy cooperation, legal accountability, and more. Reading it today, the resonance with Horizon 2045’s current work is hard to miss. Learn more about the Operating System and our work here.

07/2026

The world's most pressing threats–nuclear risk, climate change, democratic backsliding, shifting geopolitics–don't exist in isolation. They intersect, amplify each other, and move faster than traditional security frameworks can handle. The Foresight Radar is a tool built to address this reality, tracking over 500 signals of change across seven domains to help leaders anticipate crises. Drawing on expert collaboration and translated into three scenarios for 2045, it offers decision-makers something increasingly rare: enough warning to prepare. Read Scanning the Horizon here.

06/2026

The frameworks being built and tested in this decade have to be written for a world where cooperation is the operating logic rather than the exception. The redesign we need requires that serious people can work on consequential ideas together in public, across the boundaries that usually keep them apart. That’s why we created Watershed. The inaugural issue looks at the history of—and rationale for reinvesting in—strategic foresight as a tool for contemplating the future of nuclear weapons. Read more about our plans for Watershed here. Jump to the zine here.

06/2026

Our initiative, Lex Mundi Nova, has launched a six-part webinar series exploring the legacy of the landmark 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons. With expert panelists from around the world, the series examines how international law and science have evolved over three decades — and whether the opinion's ambiguities can be resolved in light of today's legal, technological, and geopolitical realities. Learn more and register here.

04/2026

In 2025, we focused on three major initiatives that embody our vision that global security must be reimagined through interconnected approaches that bridge traditional silos. Each demonstrates our core belief: the most intractable problems of our time—climate breakdown, ungoverned AI, nuclear threats, democratic erosion—cannot be solved in isolation. They demand systems thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and the courage to challenge outdated paradigms. Read our 2025 Annual Report.

03/2026

At the end of this particularly challenging year, we have found ourselves looking for reminders that good things are happening every day—that the big cycles of change we're all experiencing are bringing more than just uncertainty and threat but also real progress, important discoveries, and maybe even moments of revelation. Read on here for a little fuel for the heart and soul this in the form of evidence that we flawed humans have not entirely mucked up the works just yet. Maybe we even have it in us to pull off some spectacular saves.

12/2025

We’re thrilled to introduce you to the inaugural Horizon 2045 Board of Directors. We held our first in-person board meeting this month, and their energy was palpable. Their commitment to reimagining human and planetary security comes at a critical time, and their leadership will help us shape how we navigate the opportunities and challenges ahead. Learn more about them from the about page of our site. Join us in welcoming the Horizon 2045 Board of Directors!

10/2025

This bold initiative, a partnership of Horizon 2045, Ploughshares and the Elders, launched publicly this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The initiative brings together a diverse group of senior leaders – from the fields of nuclear non-proliferation and climate change to AI and public health – to explore the entanglement of global security risks. Read more about the new initiative here.

09/2025

The 2025 Nuclear Futures Fellows participated in an intensive week of strategic foresight that explored how emerging technologies and shifting narratives might transform global security paradigms. Drawing on cascade analysis, alternative future scenarios and signal monitoring, the fellows developed actionable intelligence that they will now put to work in the capstone projects on nuclear risk reduction for which they have each received grant funding from Ploughshares. Dive into the fellows’ experience here.

07/2025

In March Horizon 2045's Danielle McLaughlin participated in sessions during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) at UN Headquarters in New York. At CSW69, participants highlighted how conventional security frameworks disproportionately harm women and girls—from small arms proliferation to the gendered impacts of nuclear weapons and testing—challenging nearly 80 years of reliance on nuclear deterrence as a stability tool. Read more here.

04/2025

2024 was a building year for us, where we focused not just on building our own organization but also on creating much-needed crosswalks and connections between leaders and organizations working across systems of security. Looking ahead, we see tremendous opportunity for innovation and systemic change. Read our Annual Report 2024: A Year of Building.

02/2025