The Next War Won’t Look Like the Last One — But You’d Better Be Ready
The age of clean borders and secure institutions is ending.
For high-net-worth individuals and global entrepreneurs, the question is no longer if you need a Plan B. It’s how soon you can execute it. The risk landscape has changed. And so has the definition of war.
In July 2025, the podcast Diary of a CEO released a special threat assessment episode titled: "WW3 Threat Assessment: The West Is Collapsing, Can We Stop It?! They Want You Confused & Obedient!" While the title may reek of YouTube sensationalism, what followed was a sober, hour-by-hour unpacking of the world we now live in.
Not one that's sliding into global conflict. One that's already deep inside it.
Welcome to the Age of Invisibility
War is no longer declared. It bleeds in silently.
If you were expecting tanks, flags, or national mobilization, you're already behind. The modern war is invisible. And it is everywhere.
We now face a war defined by four dynamics:
Proxy warfare: where large powers arm smaller ones to weaken rivals without direct engagement
Information chaos: where truth is irrelevant and speed, volume, and emotion win
Nuclear ambiguity: where tactical weapons and dirty bombs are more likely than ICBMs
Algorithmic power: where AI, deepfakes, and autonomous drones act faster than diplomacy ever can
This is not theory. This is happening.
The U.S., Russia, China, and Iran are already fighting each other through third parties. Israel’s drones, Hezbollah’s rockets, Ukraine’s Western arms, Iran’s militia proxies—this is not buildup. This is war.
And if you live in the illusion of safety within Western borders, understand: the weapons of this war are inside the West too. And they’re aimed at minds, not cities.
You Can Destabilize a Government with 20 People and a Server Farm
This was the line that stopped me.
According to former CIA operative Andrew Bustamante, it now takes just a server farm, 20 motivated trolls, and a few AI-enhanced tools to create the same societal panic once caused by tanks.
Governments have lost their monopoly on force. And on truth.
Platforms like TikTok, X, and Telegram are the new battlegrounds. Disinformation isn't accidental; it's industrial. Teenagers are being radicalized through curated feeds. Deepfake videos — where you can no longer tell a fabricated military statement from a real one — are already fooling adults.
The battlefield is psychological. The weapon is confusion.
Bustamante described real-world war games where government simulation teams were overwhelmed not by enemy armies, but by trolls. A group of four provocateurs, feeding misinformation into the system, created more chaos than seasoned White House-level operators. The power of information distortion has now outpaced traditional military logic. If you control the narrative, you shape the battlefield.
Nuclear Risk Isn’t Gone — It’s Fragmented
Many of my clients believe the nuclear threat is exaggerated.
They assume MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) still applies. But MAD assumed a Cold War binary. Today, we have at least nine nuclear powers, each with varying doctrines and command structures. Many of them, like Pakistan, have opaque or decentralized control.
Annie Jacobsen, whose book Nuclear War: A Scenario has been read by military leaders worldwide, laid it out clearly:
The U.S. maintains a "launch on warning" doctrine. If an incoming ICBM is detected, the response launches before impact is verified.
Russia tested an ICBM in Ukraine recently with no payload, simply to test Western response.
The Pentagon rehearses a nuclear attack scenario three times a day.
The Mossad has successfully planted explosive pagers and fabricated drones inside Iran.
This isn’t academic. The risk of mistake-triggered escalation has never been higher.
Andrew, who spent years underground in U.S. missile silos, revealed that young soldiers — often just out of high school — are entrusted with launch authority, executing commands they do not fully understand. They don’t even know what they’re launching at. They follow protocol. That's how the system is designed.
The terrifying takeaway? One viral deepfake video or misread satellite signal could lead to a nuclear launch that nobody can stop. Redundancies exist. But so do human blind spots, and now, AI-enabled manipulation tools.
Dirty Bombs, Deepfakes, and Tactical Escalation
What frightens modern intelligence analysts is no longer Hiroshima-scale destruction.
It’s the grey zone event:
A dirty bomb in a Western city, without clear attribution
A tactical nuke dropped from a drone, claimed to be rogue
An AI-generated video of a leader declaring war
A cyberattack on power grids blamed on the wrong country
The entire strategic logic of deterrence breaks when no one can be sure who attacked whom.
This ambiguity is exploitable by both rogue actors and nation-states.
You don’t need global war. You only need confusion. And the system folds from the inside.
Worse: when retaliation begins, it may be based on false attribution. The result? Accidental escalation becomes not just possible, but likely. As one guest on the podcast noted, “If one Russian nuke detonates in Ukraine and it’s blamed on a third party, the entire European security system collapses overnight.”
Collapse Isn’t Military. It’s Civic.
Benjamin, a professor and former Iranian exile, said it best: the most dangerous collapse is not military. It's civic.
We now live in post-truth societies. In America, both political parties prioritize destroying each other over defending the country. Distrust in government, media, science, and community has opened the door for foreign adversaries to weaponize domestic polarization.
When Russians want to influence U.S. elections, they don’t hack machines. They hack minds.
The U.S. is weaker not because of missiles, but because Americans hate each other more than their adversaries.
Every foreign power knows this. Every intelligence agency now studies how information warfare can destroy a country without firing a single shot.
We’ve Been Warning Our Clients for Years
On our platforms — YouTube, podcasts, and this site — WW3-readiness is consistently one of the most engaged topics. That’s not a coincidence.
We’ve organized in-person seminars in Zurich, Lisbon, and other cities since 2022, especially in the context of the Ukraine war. One notable guest: Ex-General Erich Vad — former advisor to Angela Merkel, military strategist, and author.
Vad met Putin, spent decades inside German defense planning, and is among those who warn: Europe is woefully unprepared and underestimating asymmetric escalation.
Not all threats look like war. Some hide in plain sight.
Did you know both ports flanking the Panama Canal were operated by Chinese entities for years? We flagged that risk in early briefings, well before it hit the press. The canal is a crucial link in global troop and supply movement — and nobody was paying attention.
Even more chilling? Several of our German clients who work with THW (Technisches Hilfswerk) told us bluntly: Germany is preparing for war. Quietly. Systematically.
But this is no longer a secret. It’s public. THW planning documents, Bundeswehr coordination reports, and civil protection strategies are available in plain sight if you look: the federal government has drafted emergency shutdown protocols for motorways, fuel rationing strategies, contingency evacuation plans for entire regions, and protocols for mass power and water disruption.
They’ve practiced communication blackouts, cyber grid takedown drills, and distribution plans for essential goods in cooperation with logistics giants.
Why all this in Germany? Because Germany is not just any NATO member. It is NATO’s logistics platform.
In any major European conflict, Germany becomes the transit zone for fuel, armor, food, and American troops en route to the Eastern front. That makes Germany the functional artery of the Western war machine. If Germany is blocked or destabilized, NATO’s ability to respond collapses. And adversaries like Russia and China know this.
Which explains why German infrastructure, both digital and physical, has increasingly come under cyber probe — and why national readiness is being ramped up under the radar.
The war may not start in Germany. But it may be won or lost there.
Where Would You Go?
So the question arises: is there anywhere safe?
Some possibilities raised in the podcast and in our own internal threat assessments include:
New Zealand: remote, agriculturally resilient, already favored by billionaires for bunkers
Patagonia: far from geopolitical flashpoints
Australia: if you can integrate locally
Greenland: less likely to be directly targeted, but logistically difficult
Hawaii? Many people assume its remoteness makes it safer — but that assumption is dangerously wrong. In fact, as the podcast guests pointed out, Hawaii is one of the most militarized U.S. states, home to the Pacific Fleet, missile defense installations, and major listening stations. It would be a prime target in any Asia-Pacific escalation. A paradise on the surface — but very likely to be among the first hit.
Most of Europe? Too many NATO bases. Too many overlapping alliances. Too close to Russia.
The U.S.? Filled with targets, internal division, and central command structures highly exposed to deepfake warfare.
The conclusion? You don’t need to be underground to survive. You need to be out of range — both militarily and institutionally.
Why Some CIA Officers Are Leaving the U.S.
Andrew, the former clandestine CIA officer, said something that should send a chill through every wealthy Western family:
“I’m leaving the United States by 2026. I’m changing my appearance. I won’t say where. I’ll continue teaching, but not publicly. I’m done.”
This isn’t a podcaster or pundit. This is a man who worked inside missile command. Who sat underground with a nuclear launch key around his neck.
If he believes the U.S. is now too unstable for his children, maybe we should listen.
What Does This Mean for You?
For founders, investors, and globally minded individuals, the message is clear: you do not have to panic. But you do have to move with urgency and intelligence.
Here are five immediate takeaways:
Residency before headlines
Distribute your assets
Audit your digital exposure
Monitor narrative warfare
Avoid the psychological fog
You Are the Target
This war is not aimed at your city. It’s aimed at your clarity.
Your ability to make good decisions, to see clearly, to act early — these are the real threats to those who benefit from chaos.
And if you're reading this, you already sense that something isn't right. You're not alone. We help clients every day structure a viable Plan B: legally, financially, logistically.
The window is still open. But it won't stay open for long.
Don't wait for a deepfake missile launch to prove this was real.
Act.
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