On 17 November 2025, Universal Defence and Security Solutions Co-Chairman General Sir Richard Barrons KCB CBE joined Major Laurence Thomson, Chief of the General Staff’s Visiting Fellow at RUSI, to open London Business School’s inaugural Business of Defence conference with a fireside chat titled: “Is the West ready for a new era of conflict?”
Hosted by LBS’s Geopolitics & Business Society and Military in Business Club, and backed by founding partners Archangel and Project A with support from Montfort and Overton Advisory, the conference brought together more than 25 speakers and 250+ attendees across government, industry, finance, academia and the startup ecosystem.
Framed around the conference strapline – Security. Strategy. Startups. – the opening discussion set the tone for a day focused on how technology, capital and strategy must work together if Western nations are to deter and, if necessary, win wars in the decade ahead.
General Barrons and Major Thomson began by setting out the strategic context: a world in which sustained conflict is already under way across multiple domains, from Ukraine and the Middle East to the cyber and space environments.
Key themes included:
From holiday from history to permanent contest
The post-Cold War assumption of a benign security environment has ended. The panel highlighted how Russia’s aggression, China’s assertiveness, Iran and North Korea’s activities, and persistent terror and proxy threats have combined to create a continuous state of strategic competition, with a real risk of miscalculation tipping into wider war.
Multi-domain conflict as the new norm
Future crises will not be confined to land, sea and air. They will be fought and contested simultaneously in cyber, space, information and economic domains, with critical national infrastructure and the defence-industrial base squarely in scope.
Time as the scarcest resource
The discussion stressed the gap between the speed at which adversaries are moving and the slower pace of Western adaptation – in force modernisation, industrial capacity, and political decision-making. Bridging this gap is now a central task of strategy.
The fireside chat tackled the central question head-on: what does “ready” actually mean, and are Western nations close to it?
Three tests emerged:
Capability – having the right tools for the fight ahead
Modern, survivable forces with deep stocks of precision munitions, resilient C2, and integrated air and missile defence.
Adaptation to cheaper, faster, more expendable systems – from uncrewed platforms and AI-enabled ISR to electronic warfare and counter-UAS – at scale, not as boutique experiments.
Capacity – rebuilding the defence industrial base
The ability to sustain high-intensity operations over time, not just fight a short, sharp campaign.
Moving from “just-in-time” to “just-in-case” in munitions, spares and platform support, with longer-term contracts and predictable pipelines that allow industry to invest.
Political will & societal resilience
Clear articulation of the threat picture to citizens and markets.
Honest debate about defence spending, mobilisation of skills, and the role of allies and partners.
A recognition that economic, energy and information resilience are as critical as tanks or ships.
The conclusion: the West retains decisive advantages, but readiness is uneven and time-sensitive. Without urgent action to integrate strategy, industry and finance, those advantages will erode.
Reflecting the conference’s focus on technology and capital, General Barrons argued that defence can no longer be treated as a closed ecosystem of governments and primes:
Startups and dual-use tech
Many of the capabilities shaping today’s battlefields – from small drones to AI-driven analytics and resilient communications – are born in the commercial and startup world, not inside traditional defence laboratories. The challenge is to identify, test and field these technologies at war-relevant speed.
Investors as strategic actors
Venture capital, private equity and institutional investors are now central to building and scaling the companies that will provide Western advantage. Defence is no longer a niche sector; it is a core part of the innovation and growth agenda.
Bridging the language gap
The discussion highlighted the need for a “translation layer” between operational requirements, technical innovators and financial backers – aligning risk, timelines and returns with the realities of national security.
This is precisely where forums like The Business of Defence add value: they connect current and future leaders across uniforms, boardrooms and term sheets to start building that shared understanding.
For Universal Defence and Security Solutions, the conference underscored why a whole-of-system approach to security is now essential.
With a network of over 700 senior defence and security experts across land, maritime, air, space and digital domains, UDSS works with governments, armed forces, industry and investors to:
Interpret the evolving threat landscape and its operational implications
Design realistic strategies, force structures and campaigns for deterrence and defence
Help industry – from primes to startups – understand and meet genuine operational demand
Support partners in building the skills, governance and institutional resilience needed for sustained competition
General Barrons’ participation in the opening fireside chat reflected UDSS’s role as a bridge between strategic intent and practical delivery – ensuring that debates about the future of conflict lead to concrete capability, not just compelling slides.
The inaugural Business of Defence conference at London Business School has quickly established itself as an important new forum at the intersection of security, strategy and startups. For UDSS, it is further evidence that the conversation about Western readiness can no longer be confined to defence ministries alone.
UDSS will continue to support partners across government, industry and finance in answering the question posed on stage:
Is the West ready for a new era of conflict – and if not, how do we get there fast?
To explore how UDSS can support your organisation in this journey, from strategic reviews and capability development to war-gaming, education and industrial engagement, please contact us at info@universal-defence.com or via our website.