The Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy (CLG) is a social enterprise that aims to add to the social and economic fabric of our national and global community by way of our social impact and positive effect on society.

Contemporary – and often interconnected – risks, rising complexity and fast-paced technological developments are driving our need for greater independent and multi-disciplinary thought leadership, national and international  collaborative initiatives and a move away from strategic thinking in silos.

Our goal is to meet these modern-day needs and to develop a body of applied research, analysis and expertise as well as collaborative initiatives related to under-examined contemporary risks in order to safeguard our future resilience, security, prosperity and societal wellbeing.

Many modern risks now have the ability to reverberate globally, often at speed, with both local and national ramifications that show no heed to borders. While conventional state threats are still a likelihood, global trends indicate that malevolent peacetime/hybrid activities are on the rise.

We believe Ireland has a unique global brand as a smaller even-handed nation with balanced foreign policy approaches and strong moral or soft power.

It is an open global economy that is host to leading interdisciplinary expertise – it supports the international rules-based order, pursues a militarily neutral/non-aligned defence policy and works with like-minded foreign policy and economic partners.

Based in Ireland, our goal is to create a body of applied analysis and collaborative initiatives to engage independently with other states facing similar national and global challenges.

We believe that our forum can provide a distinctive – and sometimes small state – contribution to national and international discussions on modern risks.

Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, describes the essence of Irish resilience as ‘meitheal’ whereby “Ireland has its own strengths – in family life, in the local community, in the concept of meitheal, a very traditional form of cooperation in rural Ireland….[T]here are strong solidarity overtones.” Fostering this type of societal resilience is increasingly pertinent for modern risks that are not always fully preventable. These risks require resilience and risk management to facilitate our ability to bounce back from crisis.

Post-Brexit: Ireland will be the only native English speaking Member State of the EU

As a smaller country, Ireland can create structures to enhance our agility to act faster to achieve desired outcomes and provide test-beds for new concepts.

It is important to us that we provide fresh and collaborative thinking on modern risks within the national and global landscape. In particular, our institute is interested in exploring the linkages and interconnections between the local and global.

It is our vision to explore this national-global security nexus and the reason behind our name: the colour Azure and its association with Marco Polo’s travels captures the essence of our work on global  interconnectedness, the ebb and flow of global interactions and exchanges of novel ideas and innovations.

The deep blue Azure background of the Arms of Ireland depicts Ireland’s sovereignty in early Irish mythology. From medieval times, the harp has been regarded as the heraldic symbol of Ireland, while the deep blue background is symbolic of the representation of the sovereignty of Ireland in early Irish mythology.

Ar ghorm cláirseach órga na sreanga airgidí.