Building the
Preparedness Economy.

The wake-up call

The world has changed. Our understanding of security must change with it.

National security is no longer determined only by military strength. It depends on whether a society can produce what it needs, finance what it produces, withstand disruption and adapt when the world changes. That is economic security.

Today, the systems on which everyday life depends — energy, food, finance, technology, data, transport and critical infrastructure — are also arenas in which power is exercised. Supply chains can be weaponised. Technologies withheld. Markets manipulated. Infrastructure disrupted. Climate shocks, pandemics and cyber incidents can expose the same vulnerabilities without an adversary firing a shot.

And these threats do not arrive neatly, one at a time. They cascade. A shipping disruption becomes a production crisis. An extreme-weather event becomes a food and political crisis. A financial constraint can prevent strategically vital businesses from delivering the capabilities a nation thought it possessed. Our security is therefore only as strong as the economic system beneath it.

A strategy without productive capacity is an aspiration. A procurement commitment without finance is not capability. Intelligence that cannot produce action is merely observation.

Open societies need a new approach: one that understands our dependencies, mobilises industry and finance, strengthens resilience and preserves the legitimacy and openness we seek to protect. The challenge is formidable. But so is the opportunity. We must build economies capable not simply of surviving an uncertain world, but of shaping it.

The task now — build the National Economic Security Centre, connect the five ecosystems, and move from Agreement to operational preparedness. The BHA provides the framework.