Despite the extraordinary development of the field of « security studies », the concepts and knowledge (savoirs) underpinning the field remain largely understudied. This programmatic paper seeks to lay the foundations for a historical analysis of the emergence and the transformation of security concepts and knowledge (savoirs) from within a practice-oriented approach to security. To this end, the paper first offers an epistemological critique of securitization theory to affirm the utility of a practice approach. It then explores the conceptualization of the concept, especially in relation to knowledge and practice. Finally, the paper defines the empirical component of this type of historical – i.e., « archaeological » in the Foucauldian sense – analysis of security concepts and knowledge.