What might war look like? is the question posed on the cover of the February 2026 edition of Professional Security Magazine.
To expand that a little, figures in authority such as the NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte have aired a warning that the alliance of European and North American democracies may have to face a major war with Russia. In January 2026, the Chair of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said: “Security involves everyone. It is not only a matter for politicians, or for the military of the 32 Allies and this Committee that represents them. It concerns every family, every community, and every workplace. That is why we need not only support, but real engagement from the more than a billion people we are committed to defend.”
Whereas the UK in living memory has fought wars – over the Falkland Islands, in Iraq and Afghanistan – a war with Russia, such as over an incursion into a NATO member in eastern Europe such as the Baltic republics, might not only mean casualties on a far greater scale, but could bring war to Britain’s shores, whether in the real world or cyber. Hence the NATO urging, echoed by British politicians from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer down, and military figures, that the UK has to take a ‘whole of society’ approach to its own defence. As featured in the November edition of the magazine, the UK and NATO allies are already seeing cyber and real world (such as sabotage) aggression from ‘hostile nation states’. Hence in UK official documents such as the National Security Strategy 2025, a call for ‘resilience to future threats.
The question then; what might be the commercial opportunities, as well as the threats, for the private security sector, if such a war came, or was felt to be imminent? Because if critical national infrastructure were to require extra guarding, if only for reassurance, the military and police no doubt would have much else on their plate. And recent years have left the police short of spare capacity, and the military struggling to recruit and retain, let alone respond to evolving warfare as seen on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Also featured are employment screening, public space CCTV in Cornwall and Devon, counter terrorism and contract guarding.
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Photo by Mark Rowe: memorial to those killed in the UK armed forces since 1945, the centrepiece of the National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, winter afternoon.
