Future of Security Conference · Bush House · June 2026
Draft Articles of Productive Security
Building preparedness through productive ecosystems
Recognising that the global economy has become a strategic domain of security in its broadest sense, including defence and security, climate, food, water and energy, competitiveness, finance and civil society;
Recognising that economic security is increasingly directly contested and a foundation of national security, democratic resilience and long-term prosperity;
Recognising that preparedness is more effective and less costly than crisis response, and that resilient societies are built through sustained investment in productive capability;
Recognising that sovereign resilience and competitiveness are not opposing objectives, but mutually reinforcing drivers of economic growth by generating capacity through productive security goals;
Recognising that the institutions and financial architectures developed after the Second World War require renewal to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing global economy;
Recognising that governments, businesses, investors, academia and civil society each possess capabilities that must be connected through shared responsibility to ensure openness, security, resilience and prosperity;
Recognising that there is scope, using the capabilities that exist in nations and civil society, to harness economic power levers for offensive as well as defensive purposes.
We, the participants in the Future of Security Conference at Bush House, affirm these Draft Articles of Productive Security.
These Articles establish a shared framework for future collaboration. They are intended to guide the development of economic security ecosystems that strengthen resilience, preparedness, productivity and prosperity in the face of human, and non human, induced threats. They are not intended as a programme for any one government or political tradition, but as a long-term framework capable of commanding support across political parties, institutions and allied nations.
Article I
Economic security shall be understood as the capability of a society to create, sustain and adapt the productive capacity upon which prosperity, resilience, preparedness and national security ultimately depend.
Article II
Investment in resilience should be recognised as investment in productivity, innovation, competitiveness and long-term economic growth.
Economic security should therefore be pursued not as a defensive cost, but as a productive investment.
Article III
Economic security cannot be achieved through isolated institutions or individual sectors.
It requires connected and cohered ecosystems linking government, finance, industry, technology, academia and civil society around shared strategic objectives.
Article IV
Information has become strategic infrastructure.
Greater visibility across supply chains, financial systems, technologies, critical infrastructure and strategic dependencies is essential to anticipating risk, strengthening preparedness and enhancing collective decision-making.
Article V
Public and private capital should be mobilised to strengthen productive capability, accelerate innovation and build long-term resilience.
Financial systems should reward productive investment alongside prudent stewardship and recognise preparedness as a strategic objective.
Article VI
Innovation, entrepreneurship and technological leadership are strategic assets.
Economic security depends upon creating conditions in which new capabilities can flourish while safeguarding trusted markets, democratic values and allied competitiveness.
Article VII
Preparedness should become the organising principle of economic security policy.
Governments, industry and financial institutions should work together to build productive capability before crises emerge, recognising that preparedness strengthens resilience, competitiveness and long-term prosperity.
Article VIII
Public confidence, trusted information and democratic legitimacy are strategic assets.
Economic security policies should strengthen public trust by delivering tangible benefits for citizens, businesses and communities and ensuring that society remains an active participant in building national resilience.
Article IX
Economic resilience is strengthened through trusted partnerships among allies.
Shared capability, coordinated investment, resilient supply chains, collaborative innovation and open markets provide the strongest foundation for long-term security and prosperity.
Article X
Economic security is a continuous process of learning, innovation and institutional evolution.
The Bush House Agreement represents an enduring commitment to collaboration, adaptation and the continuous strengthening of productive capability.
The Conference concluded that these Articles cannot be delivered through individual policies or institutions acting alone.
Instead, Productive Security should be realised through a series of interconnected economic security ecosystems, each bringing together public and private capabilities around a common purpose.
These ecosystems are intended to evolve over time as technologies, markets and geopolitical circumstances change.
| Economic Security Ecosystem | Purpose | Illustrative Components |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic Leadership Ecosystem | Align national priorities, investment and policy across sectors and critical infrastructure. | British Investment Compact; strategic public-private leadership to create financial ecosystems that support allied sovereign capacity development in defence, CNI and Critical Social Infrastructure, enabling productive security investment. |
| Strategic Intelligence Ecosystem | Create shared visibility across economic systems and identify emerging risks and opportunities, including climate. | Alliance for Strategic Technology Advantage (ASTA); Open-Source Economic Intelligence (OSEINT); trusted data-sharing; supply chain and asset mapping; economic security intelligence. |
| Financial Resilience Ecosystem | Mobilise public and private capital towards productive capability and preparedness. | Defence Security & Resilience Bank; Sovereign Resilience Funds; commercial banks; pension funds; export credit agencies; institutional investors; trade and supply chain finance. |
| Innovation Ecosystem | Accelerate productive capability through research, entrepreneurship and dual-use innovation. | Productive Security Capability Coordinators: universities; SMEs; venture capital; trade finance; innovation agencies; industrial partnerships; technology accelerators across CNI and consumer sectors to enable identification and responsiveness to vulnerabilities. |
| Societal Resilience Ecosystem | Strengthen democratic legitimacy, public understanding and societal preparedness. | Public Information Institute; civil society organisations; consumer advocacy organisations; behavioural insight; trusted communications; education and skills. |
| Operational Delivery Ecosystem | Translate strategy into action through collaboration, experimentation and continuous improvement. | Centre for Economic Security; an Economic COBRA providing situational awareness, assessment and decisioning via cross-sector working groups across Critical National Infrastructure and the consumer economy to identify critical consumer vulnerabilities. |
The Centre for Economic Security will act as the independent steward of the Bush House Agreement.
Its role will be to convene partners, develop the supporting ecosystems, encourage collaboration and coherence across sectors, monitor progress and publish regular assessments of implementation.
The Agreement itself belongs to the wider community of governments, businesses, financial institutions, researchers, civil society organisations and international partners that choose to contribute to its continued development.
The Bush House Agreement reflects a shared understanding that the security of open societies depends not only upon their capacity to defend themselves, but upon their ability to create productive, innovative and resilient economies.
Its purpose is not to create additional bureaucracy, but to provide a common framework through which governments, businesses, financial institutions, researchers and civil society can work together to strengthen preparedness, unlock productive investment and build long-term prosperity. This is the essence of Productive Security and we commit to the development of frameworks and structures that will facilitate its development.
Preparedness is created through productive ecosystems.
The Bush House Agreement therefore marks not the conclusion of a conference, but the beginning of a long-term programme of collaboration to advance the principles of Productive Security.
If you have read the Draft Bush House Agreement and agree its principles should form the framework for future economic security policy, please add your name. Endorsements will be presented to signers for reconfirmation at the final version, published September 2026.
Your email will be used only to verify your endorsement and to invite you to reconfirm at the final version. It will not be published or shared.
The Bush House Agreement is currently a draft open for consultation. Signers endorse the current version (Draft v4 · July 2026); a final version will be published in September 2026 and endorsers will be invited to reconfirm. Endorsement is a statement of support for the principles set out in the Articles, not a legally binding commitment.