Relentless Existential Threat - Theme, Pufendorf IAS

Theme at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies

A threat becomes existential when it threatens someone's existence. Everyone faces death, the existential threat to the self. We also face existential threats to what we create and are part of, for example our society. In the present, we see limits to what our planet can provide and a new threat has arisen: to humanity's way of life.

To help citizens and policymakers deal with the growing burden of existential threats, we need to understand how it works, including its positive effects. The theme Relentless Existential Threat aims to combine forward-looking and historical research into a coherent psychologically informed framework for understanding and meeting existential threats.