Security and sustainability are prioritized goals in the “Western liberal” world. Maintaining democratic resources while simultaneously strengthening society’s ability to deal with security issues frmly resonates with ideals associated with social sustainability. However, merging normative theories like security and social sustainability produces conceptual difculties that are hard to resolve. Based on key literature in this feld and policy documents from the UN, this article uses conceptual analysis to investigate what boundaries and openings three distinct perspectives of the connection between social sustainability and security might produce. The perspectives chosen as illustrative tools are paradox, co-production, and deconstruction. The paradox perspective pronounces inherently divergent qualities of sustainability and security, which implies a trade-of situation. In contrast, the co-production perspective views social sustainability as a critical component in security issues, while security, in turn, is a prerequisite for sustainability. A third perspective, deconstruction, highlights underlying processes that produce and prioritize specifc meanings. The perspectives of paradox, co-production, and deconstruction identify how competing values operate in conceptual confgurations, highlighting the limitations and possibilities of security measures to accommodate values of social sustainability. Applying distinct approaches as illustrations for disparate ideological standpoints can deepen the knowledge of how multiple and occasionally competing outcomes are formed while considering the normative foundations enfolding inquiries of security responses to societal challenges