The Future of Security Conference, held on 23–24 July 2025 at King’s College London under the Chatham House Rule, brought together senior leaders from government, defence, security, banking, finance, technology, academia, and the SME sector to grapple with one of the most pressing questions of our time: how to understand, prepare for, and respond to the realities of economic warfare and economic security in the 21st century.

The event was structured over two complementary days. Day 1 adopted an innovative hackathon-style format, convening four specialist groups — defence and security SMEs, banks and finance providers, technology and data companies, and government representatives. These groups were tasked with addressing two urgent questions: first, how to make banks comfortable with funding defence and security SMEs; and second, what would be required to set up a Shadow Ministry of Economic Warfare to build preparedness. Day 2 was a formal, high-level conference attended by senior officials, industry leaders, financiers, and academics. The aim on this second day was to define the concepts of economic warfare and economic security, and to generate actionable policy recommendations to create a preparedness economy fit for the current threat environment.