As Europa once again becomes the scene for increased war mongering with conflicts between Ukraine, Russia, NATO, Israel, more and more countries advise their citizens to prepare for a possible open conflict. The question arises: How?

Before we start, remember that there is no quick fix and that the recommendations given here are purely a personal opinion. They are neither to be seen as advice, complete, or to be interpreted towards any type of political or belief system!

Unfortunately, coming up with a list of 35 must have items, is rather dubious and will not lead to any goal. This topic is much more complex as is the underlying problem, war, itself.

Preparedness is rather a mindset than a collection of gear and stockpiles. For a basic setup to any type of preparedness scenario, be it natural or man made disaster, please read the other article: "Preparedness – in case of crisis". It is a good introduction to the general topic.

So let’s start.

Before you can decide on your plan of action, you will have to make some decisions first. The earlier the better. They will lead you towards your goal of protection and hopefully survival.

1. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

What is your general sentiment towards the current situation, the country you live in, and towards a future life as it escalates?

A) You are a firm believer in the governance and political system of your country. You are patriotic, value your current lifestyle and see others that threaten it as an enemy. If asked, you step up to the call to defend your values. There are smarter people than you out there, so a chain of command is good. Still, there are limited resources so you will contribute with your own preparedness.

B) You might be afraid of the future, hope that sanity prevails and that government leaders somehow find a peaceful solution. Still you have your doubts and want to prepare just in case. You would keep your head down and don’t want to bother anyone.

C) Perhaps you are critical to “the system”, value personal freedom over governance and laws and would rather be on your own side. You have your doubts about who actually leads your country and if they have your best interest in mind. You might want to fight for your own, disappear or even consider “the other side”.

2. DO YOU HAVE DEPENDENCIES?

You might not be all by yourself without any other responsibilities, so let’s consider some of these:

A) You have a partner, children, parents, siblings or pets. They will need your help and support. Without you, their future is uncertain. You can’t just leave them behind and have to adjust your preparations accordingly.

B) Your job is important (to you) and might even be of public service. You might work in the health system, as a firefighter, policeman, be in the military, teach, or have another of the many important jobs that often go unnoticed but are so important for a working society, like being a garbage truck driver. Not continuing your job would put strain on others around you. Employment is much more than just getting money in the bank, it leads to a sense of accomplishment.

C) Network and friends. You are especially social and your friends mean a lot to you. Preparedness means being there for them, helping them through difficult times, even if they think you overreact and take unnecessary, boring and expensive precautions.

As you read through these, it might hit you that the list of “dependencies” actually could be seen as resources, but they intentionally are not listed as such.
Which brings us to the next point:

3. WHICH RESOURCES DO YOU HAVE?

It is always fun to read the portrayal of “how the rich prepare for WW III”, like tech giants buying a whole island as a survival retreat, important people invest in a doomsday bunker or buying big stockpiles of gold. As long as their total net-worth isn’t mentioned and, preferably, how big this investment was in relation to their available capital, these statements actually say nothing. It might be like you buying an extra 6-pack of toilet paper “just in case”. This doesn’t mean you actually envision having diarrhea.

In order to make serious preparations, you need to figure out your resources, and how much you are willing to “invest”:

A) Real estate: You have a big mortgage on the house (car, boat, student loan, vacation home). The bank owns most of it and you are actually afraid what might happen if the interest rate climbs up. In an all out war your house might get destroyed (from shelling or due to nuclear radiation fallout). On the other hand, you might rent and be not part of the home ownership group at all. This puts you either in the category of “free and independent” or you are anxious because you would want to own a plot of land were you can grow your own food.

B) You have excess wealth that you invest in any type. The most popular ones, besides real estate, are ETFs / stock market, crypto or commodities like precious metals or art. You either see crises and wars as an opportunity to buy more, undervalued, or are afraid that you might lose it all, or at least a substantial amount of it. Your idea of preparation might be to make your portfolio “war proof”, or you are willing to liquidate some of it in order to invest in preparations for uncertain times.

C) Your skills: You have spent your time and money investing in yourself rather than entertainment and stuff. You have a particular set of skills and knowledge that will be valuable in wartime. You are certain if you have to abandon everything, you will soon find work again and as such generate the necessities for living, even if you had to escape from your home or country.

On the other hand, you might be a specialist in your field that is a demanding job in a civilized environment but not as relevant once you face barbaric times. You might also be a practical worker who neither has any particular schooling or craftsmanship, but gets by in most circles and easily adapts to new environments.

Just to give you a few inputs. There are much more, but I think you understand the idea.

4. HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE LEFT?

This is a tricky one. You probably read it as “when does this war actually start?” but this isn’t necessarily what I mean.

What is your life situation: Are you young and single, in your midlife with a lot of daily work and requirements or are you getting of age and things start to slow down? You might have a work-life balance that offers you the opportunity to put much effort in preparations for war, and in order to be prepared, you can use a lot of time. You might just have the time to take some measures here and there on a Saturday night. Of course we can help you with making a plan and getting it carried out.

We can also see this question in a philosophical way: You WILL die at some point. How will it be? Perhaps the fear of war isn’t actually what you are afraid of, but a uncertainty and anxiousness about the remainder of your life. Consider how you should spend it and which opportunities might go by without you living to the fullest of your potential.

Still, the initial question if a war in Europe might be days, weeks, month, years away, remains. I don’t know. And it actually doesn’t matter either: You can never be 100% prepared and you should not act on fear from external pressure, like dire news. Being consistent with a long term goal and a lifestyle that can incorporate your plans might be a better and more balanced solution.

PLAN MISSION SPECIFIC!

Now, once you have made up your mind about these four questions, you can go on to plan your actual course of action. Only once this is clear, you should go forward and actually buy gear, provisions and specialized equipment.

Let’s look at a couple of options:

• You plan on staying at your home, tending to your own business
• Getting conscripted or volunteering for fighting for your country
• Escape at the possibility of a conflict reaching your area
• going undercover / bugging out / becoming a resistance fighter
• Seeing a war as an opportunity to make money and extend power
• Dealing with the consequences of a nuclear exchange

Already from this list you might see that the needed equipment and knowledge quite differs. In certain cases you would want to acquire lots of food supplies, while in others tactical equipment and weapons are more important, or a light backpack and cash, vs stockpiles you can trade, or a gas mask and radiation measurement equipment that you know how to operate and can interpret.

Of course, certain items are universal, like the governmental minimum recommendations in the article linked earlier. I will not repeat my concerns and thoughts on these here again and assume that you have read it.

Lets look at some of the options in detail and their necessary preparations:

Staying at home

This appears to be the most common option and the desired one from an official standpoint. People are supposed to continue their lives in a normal fashion, as far as possible. Society has to continue. Dependent on your situation, living in a house, apartment, in a city or rural area you could make investments in all necessary repair and maintenance equipment that you would need for the course of a war and afterwards. This includes plywood, plastic sheeting, blackout curtains, sandbags, support beams, concrete structural netting, spare parts for all your appliances and technical installations. Fire fighting equipment. Backup solutions for heating, water, protection. Food supplies that cover all inhabitants and possible guests. Farming equipment and seeds. Necessary skills for all the equipment acquired. Of course you should make allies with neighbors and your local municipality. 

Joining the military

This might not be voluntary, as a professional army would be far to small and ineffective to fight any significant war in Europe. Conscription has already been stated as a solution and requirement in comments from defense ministers and military leaders across European countries.

As we see from the conflict in Ukraine, fighters on both sides supplement their gear. This could be body armor, ballistic helmets as well as optics and outdoor gear. A much bigger concern than equipment would be your physical fitness though, acquiring additional training to achieve a higher level of professionalism, better survivability on the battlefield and achieving a better position than normal conscripts.

Escape / refugee

If you decide not to stay. You find that your options are better in other parts of the world or do not want to be forced to participate in actions you morally cannot support. You might also be forced to flee because your home, city or area became destroyed, occupied by the enemy or contaminated. The notorious “bug out bag” comes into play here: A backpack with all the necessary gear to survive a certain amount of time. Safe and dependent transportation is an obvious concern, as well as resources: There is only so much food and equipment you can carry, as well as money that could be taken from you. A main focus area is again obtaining necessary skills as well as a network that can support your effort. Having a pre-planned location aids to your chances as well.

Going underground

There might be various reasons why you are not one of the normal refugees or chose to remain in the general area. You could decide to become part of a resistance movement or are part of a persecuted group, for whatever reason that is unable to leave the area undetected. This scenario is actually a combination of some of the earlier mentioned options. You need both resources for concealment, heating and food, possible tactical gear and a support network. Both equipment and skills are needed in order to have a chance of success.

War as an opportunity

This example might seem far fetched for many, but history tells us otherwise: Times of crises have always been opportunities for tremendous shifts in wealth and power. Just look at the people at the top of the Third Reich (WW2 Germany) and you see that it was filled with opportunistic people. Planning for this type of scenario and protecting from it might be two sides of the same coin. If you really are convinced that a war is coming, you might as well acquire necessary barter items and find payment solutions in order to improve your situation.

Nuclear exchange

Despite that the other suggestions have had a more general character, do I want to include this very specific one. Contrary to common belief: Nuclear war is survivable, possibly even without negative long term health effects from radiation. Protection can be achieved rather easily, depending on your environment, your living and working space and your distance from ground zero, like mayor cities or other strategic targets. The possibility of EMP (Electric Magnetic Pulse) has to be considered, but again, this is something that can be taken into account and planned for. If you see the usage of nuclear bombs as a threat, the protection and long term survivability requires dedicated equipment like respirators (gas masks) with filters, air ventilation, protective gear and detectors (dosimenters) as well as knowledge and training in detection, interpretation and decontamination.

I hope this information was a useful start of a discussion you can have with your family. Feel free to leave a comment and stay safe!