To wonder if anyone has or is considering moving to a country that's less likely to be involved if Putin attacks a NATO country. (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Carla786]

I hope that if WW3 happened, I'd be brave enough to stay and fight. I love Britain & I'd hate to leave it or see it invaded by Putin.

However, at the same time I'm wondering about the recent rush of articles suggesting conflict with Russia is inevitable by around 2030 and that civilians need to prepare to be conscripted to fight if NATO is attacked. I'd always thought Britain being land-invaded was fairly unlikely, but being called up to fight in a NATO war widens the options of what might happen.

Countries that are less likely to be involved include Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland. I don't particularly want to move to any of these. If call-ups are likely to be imminent in about 4 years, I don't know..

The country I've always thought I'd move to if I did move is Poland (where I have family ties)- but of course that's far more likely to be involved in a potential war!

There’s very few jobs in NZ at the moment, so will be hard to get a job there. Lots of people in NZ are moving to Australia to find work.

I think this is a challenge in most places at the moment. Australia included.

If ww3 happens it happens could not give a toss.

I would prefer Aus. I had an uncle who moved there when I was very small - he used to send books about it when he visited & I've been a bit obsessed ever since.

However I believe Aus is more likely to be involved in a war.

I don't know a great deal about NZ, but most of what I know is positive.

Didn't the islanders all have to evacuated for a couple of years in the 1960s after a volcanic eruption?

Perhaps an Antarctic base?

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We don't know how much longer Trump will be in post for really do we. Most Americans won't want to break up NATO.

Moving to NZ is OTT here but if you reckon you can get in and want to, then go for it. Worrying about things you can't control or predict is quite pointless.

Moving to Oz is difficult but not impossible. Choose your training course carefully. Be warned that they abruptly change the criteria from time to time.

NZ is a terrific place. But I think it can be hard for foreigners to ever feel they belong there, maybe? If you aren't tangata whenua or of a long standing pakeha family.

I think you should leave the country now, OP. If you wait much longer hordes of people will be trying to get into New Zealand and you'll have no chance. I also think that if you're this concerned about the future of the planet (and I don't blame you), you definitely shouldn't be planning to have children. It's just not fair on them.

I don't think we're going to be in a global hellstorm where no country is safe any time soon..what I do think is that Putin poses a much bigger threat than many people on this thread want to consider. I think having children in a more potentially safe environment is different (hopefully!)

Anyway, I'm not having kids until I'm 29 or so. Maybe things will be different then. Hopefully for the better...

People have always moved to Australia. They generally go to earn higher wages rather than because they can't find work.

Good point re Trump. You never know with Vance but I can't see him as a strutting strongman on the world stage in quite the same way. Assuming Vance wins.

Farage, on course to be PM right now, may be less willing to get involved in war, though his attitude to Russia is pretty worryingly friendly, arguably, so that's not exactly a comfort.

Putin : who knows?

One thing I do think is that Russians will probably NOT want to fight war after war. There have been heavy casualties and though many probably do think the West is a threat, surely many would agree that wars to capture Poland, Lithuania, & who knows where else are probably not worth the cost?

Obviously Putin is dictator so it's hard to defy him, to put it mildly. But he has to pay at least a little attention to public opinion, surely? The Chinese government are dictators but they still try to keep a generally happy populace via raised living standards etc , something Putin has hardly done...

Apologies. My bizarre sounding post, several up, is in response to the poster who said they were planning to move to Tristan da Cunha. I thought I had quoted their post, but obviously not.

Good point though, NZ has volcanoes too. Also earthquakes!

Uruguay has had an earthquake but that was in 1880s.

MangaKanga · Today 01:56

NZ is a terrific place. But I think it can be hard for foreigners to ever feel they belong there, maybe? If you aren't tangata whenua or of a long standing pakeha family.

Not sure if that is strictly correct, Kanga. DH is a recent Pom import and feels 100% Kiwi. He has a Maori mate in the supermarket who jokes with him every
time they meet about his Pommie accent. DH says "Yeah nah, I'm as Kiwi as you, mate." (Note the "yeah nah" - compulsory Kiwi speak.)We had an Open Home Christmas chez nous, and had: two Germans, two Dutch, one Pom (DH - hasn't yet had the operation - the one that gives you the funny accent), one Aussie, two Americans, 5 Kiwis, one with a Pom father and Maori mum. We all feel that we belong here. Immigrants all, at some stage or other. We had a whale of a Christmas.

Really glad to hear that. I was mostly going by the whinging on here of the boomerang Poms. For some reason they seem bitch about New Zealand more than Australia, which is ridiculous given your wonderful lack of snakes and huge eight legged things.

Hope your husband gets his op soon and can order fushandchups with the best of them.

Kanga - right on the nail. The boomerangers will insist in buying in Auckland and then bitching. We south of the Bombay Hills and north of Wellsford refer to the inhabitants of that stuck-up city as "Jafas" - "Just Another Fucking Aucklander." For the real Kiwis, seek and ye shall find, in the hills and mountains, beach settlements, farms, small provincial towns...we're actually a bit of a dying breed, sadly. DH is working on his accent with great energy...

Switch off the TV.

Come on, it's not just TV scaremongering.

The links I've posted include top army advisers on the war threat. Are they all wildly exaggerating?

Russia can't even win the war in Ukraine. Putin won't be around forever, Russians will want to participate in Europe and the world again. Who knows what the future holds but I think war with Russia is unlikely, especially to the point of conscription.

Yeah, probably. This thread is crazy.

Russia aren't going to attack a NATO country. Just like China are not going to attack Taiwan. Mutual destruction policy.

That sounds positive.

I've read a lot of Witi Ihaemaera and Janet Frame, if that helps at all I don't know 🤣

Seriously though, I know I'll need to find out as much as I can before I move if I do this.

Mark Rutte, French government, all those military top brass quoted in the articles I've linked? Are they all just scaremongering about wholly unrealistic scenarios?

That would be very odd. For those who think it's all just scaremongering, why? Do you also think warnings of danger during the Cold War were empty scaremongering? OK, no war broke out, but the warnings at the time were realistic and there were flashpoints where violence could easily have broken out

Hopefully not. Are you referring to nuclear though?

If Putin attacked a NATO country, NATO would probably respond, but highly unlikely for them to respond with nuclear weapons.

I agree a war without nuclear weapons would still be mutually destructive but not sure that makes it highly unlikely to break out. It's no foregone conclusion that Taiwan is safe either.