Enhanced resilience is on the agenda of business managers and policymakers. Given the grand challenges faced by both, resilience refers both to advancing security as well as environmental sustainability and preparing for related challenges. This study explores the policymakers’ perspective on advancing resilience objectives in international business. Building on literature on socio-political networks and collective agency, the empirical data was collected from individual and focus group interviews with policymakers dealing with sustainability and security issues. The study shows that while trying to advance resilience as well as the global competitiveness of European industries, policymakers face both synergies and controversies between these objectives. Moreover, they are faced with three dilemmas in pursuing them: (1) How to share information for more efficient policies? (2) Who pays the price for resilience investments? (3) How to balance regulation and need for innovations? By thus enlightening the complexity of objectives and processes of collective agency, the study opens up new avenues for research particularly on international business policy, and offers recommendations to both business managers and policymakers aiming at strengthening the resilience of individual businesses and economies at large. (For more information, please contact: Anna Karhu, University of Turku, Finland: anna.karhu@utu.fi)