Modern threats blur the line between peacetime and wartime, straining legal and operational frameworks. To respond effectively, the Netherlands may need to transition to a 'war economy.' This research examines the definition, stages, implications, and challenges, identifying five key issues: insufficient social resilience, lack of supply chain insight, poor EU coordination, unclear legal frameworks, and inadequate defence industry collaboration.

Nederland voorbereid: Lessen uit oorlogseconomieën voor een weerbare samenleving

[Netherlands prepared: Lessons from war economies for a resilient society]

Tristan Kreetz, Judith Huismans, Fook Nederveen, Conlan Ellis, Francesca Ghiretti

ResearchPublished Dec 8, 2025

Cover: Nederland voorbereid: Lessen uit oorlogseconomieën voor een weerbare samenleving
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Note: This report is in Dutch. An English-language version and summary is available.

The increasing complexity of modern threats is blurring the distinction between peacetime and wartime, putting pressure on legal and operational frameworks.

In order to be able to respond effectively to increasing threats, it may be necessary to scale up production for defence purposes and strengthen security of supply even in peacetime. This facilitates the transition to a 'war economy' and better prepares the Netherlands for the outbreak of military conflict. However, implementation has significant legal, economic, political and social implications.

RAND Europe's research draws on lessons from war economies to improve societal resilience. It maps out these consequences of a 'war economy' for the Ministry of Defence and society in general. The research team conducted a literature review, interviews with stakeholders, an expert workshop and three case studies on international approaches. Based on this, this research report provides a definition, stages, implications, challenges and recommended actions, for which we draw from international lessons from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine.

Key Findings

Based on our research, we arrive at the following definition of a war economy: A war economy is an economy in which the government systematically intervenes to increase societal resilience and military preparedness in pursuit of strategic goals during conflict. The following phases have been identified:

  • Phase 0: Peacetime economy
  • Phase 1A: Increasing societal resilience
  • Phase 1B: Preparedness
  • Phase 2: Military conflict
  • Phase 3: Phase out

Both the definition as well as the phases highlight the key issue of resilience. The report maps the political, economic, societal, technological, legal, environmental and military aspects and (policy) implications of a wartime economy across these phases. Based on this, several challenges and recommended actions were identified.

Recommendation

The report provides recommends tackling five key issues that have been identified for the implementation of a wartime economy: insufficient societal resilience, lack of insight into supply chains, insufficient coordination with the European Union, insufficient clarity regarding the legal framework and insufficient coordination with the defence industry.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: Dutch Ministry of Defence
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 89
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA4063-1
  • Document Number: RR-A4063-1

Citation

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Kreetz, Tristan, Judith Huismans, Fook Nederveen, Conlan Ellis, and Francesca Ghiretti, Nederland voorbereid: Lessen uit oorlogseconomieën voor een weerbare samenleving: [Netherlands prepared: Lessons from war economies for a resilient society]. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4063-1.html.
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The research described in this report was prepared for the Dutch Ministry of Defence and conducted by RAND Europe.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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