At its inaugural public event in London, The Resilience Imperative brought together leaders from defence, business, intelligence and community resilience to argue that the UK must move from passive security to active preparedness.
The Resilience Imperative held its inaugural public event in London, formally launching a new non-partisan campaign focused on strengthening the UK’s resilience in the face of rising hybrid threats. Founded by Lady Olga Maitland and supported by a coalition spanning business, private capital, intelligence and the military, the initiative is designed to raise public awareness, inform policy debate and help build a broader national effort around resilience.
For Universal Defence and Security Solutions, the launch matters because it reflects a shift that can no longer be ignored. Britain is no longer operating in the comfortable assumptions of the post-Cold War era. As speakers at the event made clear, the country is living in a more ambiguous and contested environment, where the threats are often quieter than conventional war but no less serious in their effect. Cyber attacks, infrastructure disruption, disinformation, economic coercion and interference below the threshold of open conflict are already shaping the UK’s security environment.
Lady Olga Maitland set the tone for the launch by challenging the long-held belief that peace at home can be taken for granted. Her argument was that the UK has become used to thinking danger happens elsewhere, when in reality the foundations of national security are already under pressure. The Resilience Imperative has been launched to address that gap between assumption and reality, and to make the case that resilience must be understood not as a niche technical issue but as a national one.
General Sir Richard Barrons gave the keynote speech, bringing strategic weight to the campaign. One of the co-author's of the Strategic Defence Review, argued that the UK has entered a new era defined by state confrontation, digital vulnerability and growing pressure on critical systems. He said resilience is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a requirement for national survival, and warned that the battlefield is no longer confined to distant borders but now reaches into power grids, supply chains, communications networks and public confidence itself.
That argument is central to the campaign’s message. Barrons’ contribution framed resilience as a deterrent as much as a defensive measure. In his view, a society that is digitally hardened, physically prepared and cognitively aware is harder to intimidate or destabilise. He also called for a whole-of-society model built around government leadership, institutional responsibility and citizen preparedness.
The launch also highlighted the increasingly important role of business in national resilience. Rick Cudworth, Executive Director of Resilience First, argued that hybrid warfare is not an abstract future concern but something already affecting UK businesses today. His remarks focused on the reality that private sector resilience and national resilience are now inseparable, particularly when businesses sit at the centre of supply chains, infrastructure, services and daily civic life. Resilience First has echoed that message publicly, stressing that the economics of disruption have changed and that “business as usual” is no longer enough.
Sam Olsen, Chief Analyst at Sibylline, focused on the nature of the threat itself. His remarks underlined how fragile modern societies can be when critical systems are disrupted, whether through cyber attacks, grid failures or attacks on essential infrastructure such as subsea cables. His message was that resilience depends on understanding the threat clearly and then translating that understanding into practical preparation across businesses, communities and individuals.
Jeegar Kakkad, Head of Defence at Stonehaven, brought in the public opinion dimension through polling conducted by Public First. The findings presented at and around the launch paint a striking picture. According to the polling, 40% of people believe the UK could be at war within five years, 55% believe the country is poorly prepared for war, only 30% are confident in the UK’s ability to defend itself, and almost 70% doubt their ability to cope in a conflict. The data suggests that public concern is real, but that concern has not yet translated into widespread readiness or a stronger willingness to act.
Martin Travers, CEO of SafeHouse Pro, brought perhaps the most practical local dimension to the discussion. He outlined a bottom-up approach centred on building a national network of community resilience hubs, designed to turn communities from passive recipients of support into active resilience partners. That contribution is significant because it grounds the campaign in something tangible: resilience not only as strategy and policy, but as local capability, trusted coordination and practical support when disruption hits.
Taken together, the launch showed that The Resilience Imperative is trying to close a gap that has become increasingly obvious in recent years: the gap between recognising a more dangerous world and preparing society to function within it. The campaign’s core proposition is that resilience must be shared. Government has to lead, but it cannot act alone. Business must think beyond efficiency and consider continuity and sovereignty. Communities must rebuild local capacity. Individuals must understand that preparedness is not something delivered to them, but something they are part of.
For UDSS, that wider framing is highly relevant. Tobias Ellwood, UDSS Strategic Advisor, has been making a closely aligned case in recent commentary, arguing that national resilience starts not only with military capability but with homes, businesses and institutions being ready to withstand serious disruption. While Ellwood was not listed among the launch speakers, his work speaks directly to the same challenge: how the UK builds a stronger culture of preparedness in an era of persistent hybrid pressure.
The launch of The Resilience Imperative is therefore more than the start of a new campaign. It is part of a wider attempt to shift the national mindset. The central message from Lady Olga Maitland, Richard Barrons, Rick Cudworth, Sam Olsen, Jeegar Kakkad and Martin Travers was consistent: the UK cannot afford to treat resilience as an afterthought. In a more contested age, resilience is not simply about bouncing back after disruption. It is about making sure the country, its institutions and its people are prepared before disruption arrives.