I live in Finland and we received our Prepared People Cope Better guide last week. I also happen to live on strategic islands that have been mentioned far too many times in the Russian media for comfort. Sharing a long land border with Russia means they’re incredibly prepared. All big buildings with many people have bomb shelters, including my apartment building built in 1970. There is air raid and emergency siren testing on the first of every month at 12pm. I’ll be following the advice in the document because preparing is important, even if it’s to ease my anxiety a little.
Thanks for sharing the view from Finland. I can understand your anxiety about Russian media mentioning your strategic islands! But it must be some comfort to feel prepared. May we all be prepared and never need it.
Sarah, I totally understand your perspective. And yes, I think about the war a lot. Do I actually believe that all of Europe will be engulfed by it? No. But that doesn't mean that awful things are not going to happen.
But in terms of violence, I would still rather live over here (I live in Portugal) than in the US. I may be alone in this, but I can envision scenarios in which there is another civil war in the US. So that really doesn't feel safer than Europe, which, to me, still feels like the sanest corner of the planet, despite all of the horrible right-wing populist parties that are on the rise now.
Am I inclined to be worried? Sure. But do I allow myself to worry? As little as possible, because at the end of the day, you have to get on with your life, don't you? Hang in there, and keep those tablets handy!
I guess one thing we can be sure of is that awful things will happen. They're happening right now in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan. Sometimes I look around at us all, bicycling to school and work, going to the theater, living our lives, and feel like the contrast is so surreal. Thanks for sharing the view from Portugal.
Oh, and I used to live in Sweden, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are distributing such pamphlets. The Swedish government takes its job of protecting the populace more seriously than that of a certain country south of Canada that I won’t name. And the Swedish population is much less given to freaking out than, say, Californians are. 😉
Really appreciate your piece. I am American and my husband is Dutch and we are considering moving back to the Netherlands following the election. However we are very concerned about war in Europe. But serious civil unrest in U.S. is also possible. Or financial collapse (both places). We are making plans, considering options and trying to have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, which we could execute on depending on what happens in the next 12 months. Preparedness seems a good move (including the ideas in the Swedish brochure). I am surprised how many people seem to NOT be concerned and just thinking life will continue as normal when so many signs are there that it may not.
I understand your anxiety, especially as an American that has been brought up in a country that seemed to be so isolated from wars elsewhere in the World (including all the ones started by America!).
As a Brit, wars have always been on the agenda, not least because Britain has a belligerent history and has pissed off just about everyone for centuries, and also because Britain always supports America, but without the luxury of the Atlantic as a buffer zone. I used to live 10 minutes walking distance from one of Britain’s largest naval ports, so understand what it is to always feel like a target!
But now I live in France and feel far safer. I am the same distance from Russia, but without the red, white and blue bullseye painted on my head! - nothing much nearby worth wasting a warhead on, and generally to windward of all the likely targets. Or so I like to think.
I really don’t think Putin will go nuclear - if he was going to do so, he’d have used a battlefield nuclear missile on Kyiv in the early months and taken out the Ukrainian government, ending the war in a day and capturing all of Ukraine. He didn’t.
My own view, as a European that directly experienced the real fears of the Cold War years, is that Putin has overreached in Ukraine and wants to stop without losing face or territory. But the war has now become a proxy war between America and all those countries that would like to topple American hegemony; Russia of course, China, North Korea, Iran, even Hungary, and all that has driven Putin on.
But if Trump withdraws support for Ukraine, then much of the reason for the war by those other countries disappears, especially for China that relies heavily on Europe for trade. At that point the dynamic changes, and China is likely to become a brake on Putin, in their own best interests.
To me, I think America is far more likely to end up in dangerous violence than Europe, simply because there seems to be little of the ‘social glue’ that makes people part of a genuine society and community. Half the people seem to hate the other half, and almost everybody seems to act as though they hate the minorities. So much aggression. And all those guns…….!
There is obviously much more to it all; what happens to NATO, Trump’s tariffs on China, the Russian gas supplies still flowing to Germany, the Russian investments in Britain, etc, etc…. but suffice to say I do not expect to be directly affected by the Russia Ukraine War anytime soon.
That isn’t to say I’m not prepared - i live on a 70’ sailboat, well stocked, and ready to sail at an hour’s notice, south, north, or west and out to sea. ‘Be Prepared’, as Baden Powell wisely counselled!
Thanks for this helpful analysis. You're so right about the American experience being a step removed from war. At her Dutch high school, my daughter's class had the assignment to write about their families' experiences during WWII. My daughter wrote about her great-grandfather flying bombing raids over France and Italy. Her Dutch peers wrote about the Hunger Winter and German occupation.
And yes, civil war in the United States is another of my worries, mostly because I have a lot of family who live there still. It's a hard truth to face that nowhere is really safe. We just have to be prepared for what we can, and face the rest when it comes.
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened”
Living in Croatia, I am aware of the war, and given I grew up in a war (Cro.war for independence 1991), I am aware of how easy it can get worse. We have many refugees in Croatia too, a daily reality check. Do I have angst and an emergency escape plan? No. Mostly because I have a family here and we will all have to cope with whatever comes Europe's way.
Thanks for this perspective on living with uncertainty with grace. I think there's definitely a sense in which having options can give a person the illusion that they control more than they do.
We are definitely seeing more Americans arriving in Italy - the last election seemed to really split the country in two and those who are anti Trump feel they have no choice but to leave. There are still other reasons - the healthcare, lack of guns and generally more sunshine and pizza!
I live 15 minutes drive from the largest naval base in northern Europe, which is on the "primary strike list" for Russia.
Norway is being constantly probed by Russia, by sea, air, GPS disturbances, cyber.
Denmark and Sweden may not share a land border with Russia, but they share seaway to the North Sea/Atlantic for Russia, and several sea cables between Scandinavia and Europe have been cut. Right now a Chinese vessel is "suspected" of having dragged it's anchor 100 kilometers and having cut another data/internet cable. Russian spy ships are hovering near North Atlantic cables and oil platforms.
We too have received updated info on supplies to have, not just in case of full-blown war, but also with attacks on infrastructure. Unfortunately, unlike the Finns, our Cold War bunkers have not been maintained or expanded, but converted to other uses.
I lived in the far North for years during the cold war, but now is a scarier time ( and we experienced Chernobyl radiation contamination there as well).However, my view of the States is "not on your life" would I live there again. Europe, or anywhere else I lay my head, is more home to this peripatetic many-decade multi-country expat.
Nice to hear from someone who can compare living here in cold war times to now. I guess the more I think about it, the more I realise that when I'm thinking about the American passport in my back pocket, it's imagining being an actual war refugee in some dark future, and having somewhere to go where they have to let me in.
Honestly I worry more about a war in ME and a possible attack of Israel on Iran but hey, that’s my home country and where my loved ones live. Another reason I guess as to why I don’t think about a possible war in here, is that I have already lived and experienced a war for 8 years so I guess I’m kind of mentally prepared. The first year I moved to NL, that siren on the first Monday of each month was so terrifying cause it was too familiar to me but over time I just got used to it.
Now about any possible talk or warning in The Netherlands, interesting enough just a few weeks ago on Jeugdjournaal they talked about an emergency pack at home and what it has to contain!
I wish you peace of mind Sarah and me too, I’m very grateful for the peace and safety we have so far in this country. Let’s just keep calm and enjoy life while it lasts 😌
Thank you so much, Média. This is a wise perspective. I feel so sick about the war in the Middle East, to the point where I wonder why that’s what I’m obsessing about when I know Ukraine is the war that has more potential to affect me. It must be really difficult to listen to how Western media outlets talk about Iran. May your loved ones be safe!
I moved to Europe (Geneva) 18 months ago. I lived four years in Africa in the past. I like it here, but I'm very much still an American. Some of that is that Geneva is so international and the Swiss are somewhat insular, some of it is that I have two small kids I'd like to have remain connected to their country of origin. In the current political situation, I'm always struck by the fact that living overseas, you really lose all of the normal from back home that continues even in tumultuous times, the barbecues, the pta meeting, the commutes and so on. I was in Africa in 2016-2017 and it was the same.
Yes, I reflect on this often. There’s a limited time (perhaps a year or so), when you notice all the little differences. And then they melt into background and start to feel normal. I actually love that feeling of slipping into being local. It can be jarring to go back to your country of origin afterwards though, and realise how foreign it seems now.
As an expat Australian I have a mixed bag on this. I do often feel out of place when I go home (usually once or twice a year from the US to see my mum and stepdad and friends) but at the same time there are certain people, places, smells, tastes that immediately make me feel more like a local. I fear a big part of that is still having access to my childhood home and I suspect a drastic change once that is no longer an option.
Thank you for the angst. It is much needed to keep the world in perspective, a healthy one. Erma Bombeck once wrote, “The grass is always greener over the septic tank.” Not to say any other place is shit, but that each place that looks better comes with its own ‘stuff,’ at least that’s how I interpret it. Why humans stopped hand-to-hand sword or club fighting, I will never understand. Where is that damned planet-killing asteroid?
Oh, I think about this all the time. I’m an American in the UK and a friend is from Ukraine. He settled here a couple decades ago. He had to get his sister, brother in law and their two children out of there when the war started. His family is here on refugee visas. I’m just hoping I am in a remote enough place we can get through any upcoming hostilities.
What a harrowing experience trying to get his family to safety. When my book club discussed Prophet Song a few months ago, it was shocking to me how many of our international group had experiences that directly related. We’re an international group, and I remember not only our Ukrainian member sharing her family’s story, but also our Iranian, Romanian and Colombian members. What for me is novel and terrifying for them is terrifying in a different way, because it’s not new.
It was harrowing. He pulled every favour with colleagues all across the continent, so they had a place to stay in their journey. he holds Dutch citizenship and then did the paperwork to get them to the UK where he lives. Everything they had is pretty much gone.
Will Continental Europe be engulfed by war any time soon? I don't think so. At least not directly. But indirectly we will. Let's assume that Trump brokers a deal between Ukraine and Russia in 2025, creating a new border on Ukraine soil. Let's also reasonably assume that neither Russia nor Ukraine will be happy with the deal. The border (and the deal) will need to be monitored for infringements. This will be a job for (European) Nato soldiers. The border between Ukraine and Russia is roughly 2500 KM. How many soldiers will be needed to monitor this border? I have no idea, but if South Korea needs 450k troops to control a 250 KM border with its northern neighbour, it may be an indication of the indirect impact the war will have on us all. That's the sad reality, I'm afraid.
I had not considered this, but it makes sense. I was taking the Amsterdam metro a lot last month, and noticed big advertisements recruiting for the Dutch military at every station. Whether for the purpose you mention or general defence, European countries are ramping up their military capabilities.
So true. Now we're just shipping material. The Ukrainians are doing the fighting. Chances are high that in future we'll be shipping material + troops. That's quite a different scenario.
Loved running across today's piece, as I love long-form (formerly "in depth" and still my preferred phrase) writing. Yours flows nicely! I lived in S. France in (gasp!) 1965-66 and travelled in the warm countries some. I love Europe....and I support Ukraine as best I can.
When the war in Ukraine broke out, I felt a lot of anxiety. I live in Switzerland, and there were quite a few tv debates on Russia’s nuclear capabilities. I was depressed at the time, and I remember waking up in the morning and thinking, oh, we’re still here!! Now it does play on my mind, but mentally I’m better, and I figure there’s not much I can do about it, so I just try to make the most of every day. Interesting read! Thank you 🙏
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so glad you're doing better these days. It's incredible what the human mind can get used to, isn't it? I'm mostly doing better too. It was those uber-prepared Swedes who set me off this time!
Oh please, get some perspective and educate yourself. And you were in Switzerland🤣. If you had been an Ukrainian women in Mariopol, yeah, you had reason to worry.
I live in Finland and we received our Prepared People Cope Better guide last week. I also happen to live on strategic islands that have been mentioned far too many times in the Russian media for comfort. Sharing a long land border with Russia means they’re incredibly prepared. All big buildings with many people have bomb shelters, including my apartment building built in 1970. There is air raid and emergency siren testing on the first of every month at 12pm. I’ll be following the advice in the document because preparing is important, even if it’s to ease my anxiety a little.
Thanks for writing about this.
Thanks for sharing the view from Finland. I can understand your anxiety about Russian media mentioning your strategic islands! But it must be some comfort to feel prepared. May we all be prepared and never need it.
Exactly! 💖
Sarah, I totally understand your perspective. And yes, I think about the war a lot. Do I actually believe that all of Europe will be engulfed by it? No. But that doesn't mean that awful things are not going to happen.
But in terms of violence, I would still rather live over here (I live in Portugal) than in the US. I may be alone in this, but I can envision scenarios in which there is another civil war in the US. So that really doesn't feel safer than Europe, which, to me, still feels like the sanest corner of the planet, despite all of the horrible right-wing populist parties that are on the rise now.
Am I inclined to be worried? Sure. But do I allow myself to worry? As little as possible, because at the end of the day, you have to get on with your life, don't you? Hang in there, and keep those tablets handy!
I guess one thing we can be sure of is that awful things will happen. They're happening right now in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan. Sometimes I look around at us all, bicycling to school and work, going to the theater, living our lives, and feel like the contrast is so surreal. Thanks for sharing the view from Portugal.
Oh, and I used to live in Sweden, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are distributing such pamphlets. The Swedish government takes its job of protecting the populace more seriously than that of a certain country south of Canada that I won’t name. And the Swedish population is much less given to freaking out than, say, Californians are. 😉
Thanks for this! I’ve been hoping for someone in Sweden to chime in.
In Israel and Syria.
Really appreciate your piece. I am American and my husband is Dutch and we are considering moving back to the Netherlands following the election. However we are very concerned about war in Europe. But serious civil unrest in U.S. is also possible. Or financial collapse (both places). We are making plans, considering options and trying to have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, which we could execute on depending on what happens in the next 12 months. Preparedness seems a good move (including the ideas in the Swedish brochure). I am surprised how many people seem to NOT be concerned and just thinking life will continue as normal when so many signs are there that it may not.
Good luck with the planning! We’re lucky to have options.
I understand your anxiety, especially as an American that has been brought up in a country that seemed to be so isolated from wars elsewhere in the World (including all the ones started by America!).
As a Brit, wars have always been on the agenda, not least because Britain has a belligerent history and has pissed off just about everyone for centuries, and also because Britain always supports America, but without the luxury of the Atlantic as a buffer zone. I used to live 10 minutes walking distance from one of Britain’s largest naval ports, so understand what it is to always feel like a target!
But now I live in France and feel far safer. I am the same distance from Russia, but without the red, white and blue bullseye painted on my head! - nothing much nearby worth wasting a warhead on, and generally to windward of all the likely targets. Or so I like to think.
I really don’t think Putin will go nuclear - if he was going to do so, he’d have used a battlefield nuclear missile on Kyiv in the early months and taken out the Ukrainian government, ending the war in a day and capturing all of Ukraine. He didn’t.
My own view, as a European that directly experienced the real fears of the Cold War years, is that Putin has overreached in Ukraine and wants to stop without losing face or territory. But the war has now become a proxy war between America and all those countries that would like to topple American hegemony; Russia of course, China, North Korea, Iran, even Hungary, and all that has driven Putin on.
But if Trump withdraws support for Ukraine, then much of the reason for the war by those other countries disappears, especially for China that relies heavily on Europe for trade. At that point the dynamic changes, and China is likely to become a brake on Putin, in their own best interests.
To me, I think America is far more likely to end up in dangerous violence than Europe, simply because there seems to be little of the ‘social glue’ that makes people part of a genuine society and community. Half the people seem to hate the other half, and almost everybody seems to act as though they hate the minorities. So much aggression. And all those guns…….!
There is obviously much more to it all; what happens to NATO, Trump’s tariffs on China, the Russian gas supplies still flowing to Germany, the Russian investments in Britain, etc, etc…. but suffice to say I do not expect to be directly affected by the Russia Ukraine War anytime soon.
That isn’t to say I’m not prepared - i live on a 70’ sailboat, well stocked, and ready to sail at an hour’s notice, south, north, or west and out to sea. ‘Be Prepared’, as Baden Powell wisely counselled!
Thanks for this helpful analysis. You're so right about the American experience being a step removed from war. At her Dutch high school, my daughter's class had the assignment to write about their families' experiences during WWII. My daughter wrote about her great-grandfather flying bombing raids over France and Italy. Her Dutch peers wrote about the Hunger Winter and German occupation.
And yes, civil war in the United States is another of my worries, mostly because I have a lot of family who live there still. It's a hard truth to face that nowhere is really safe. We just have to be prepared for what we can, and face the rest when it comes.
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened”
― Winston S. Churchill
Living in Croatia, I am aware of the war, and given I grew up in a war (Cro.war for independence 1991), I am aware of how easy it can get worse. We have many refugees in Croatia too, a daily reality check. Do I have angst and an emergency escape plan? No. Mostly because I have a family here and we will all have to cope with whatever comes Europe's way.
Thanks for this perspective on living with uncertainty with grace. I think there's definitely a sense in which having options can give a person the illusion that they control more than they do.
We are definitely seeing more Americans arriving in Italy - the last election seemed to really split the country in two and those who are anti Trump feel they have no choice but to leave. There are still other reasons - the healthcare, lack of guns and generally more sunshine and pizza!
Yep, happens like clockwork every time. Then they arrive, and the Brothers of Italy are there to welcome them.
I live 15 minutes drive from the largest naval base in northern Europe, which is on the "primary strike list" for Russia.
Norway is being constantly probed by Russia, by sea, air, GPS disturbances, cyber.
Denmark and Sweden may not share a land border with Russia, but they share seaway to the North Sea/Atlantic for Russia, and several sea cables between Scandinavia and Europe have been cut. Right now a Chinese vessel is "suspected" of having dragged it's anchor 100 kilometers and having cut another data/internet cable. Russian spy ships are hovering near North Atlantic cables and oil platforms.
We too have received updated info on supplies to have, not just in case of full-blown war, but also with attacks on infrastructure. Unfortunately, unlike the Finns, our Cold War bunkers have not been maintained or expanded, but converted to other uses.
I lived in the far North for years during the cold war, but now is a scarier time ( and we experienced Chernobyl radiation contamination there as well).However, my view of the States is "not on your life" would I live there again. Europe, or anywhere else I lay my head, is more home to this peripatetic many-decade multi-country expat.
Nice to hear from someone who can compare living here in cold war times to now. I guess the more I think about it, the more I realise that when I'm thinking about the American passport in my back pocket, it's imagining being an actual war refugee in some dark future, and having somewhere to go where they have to let me in.
Honestly I worry more about a war in ME and a possible attack of Israel on Iran but hey, that’s my home country and where my loved ones live. Another reason I guess as to why I don’t think about a possible war in here, is that I have already lived and experienced a war for 8 years so I guess I’m kind of mentally prepared. The first year I moved to NL, that siren on the first Monday of each month was so terrifying cause it was too familiar to me but over time I just got used to it.
Now about any possible talk or warning in The Netherlands, interesting enough just a few weeks ago on Jeugdjournaal they talked about an emergency pack at home and what it has to contain!
I wish you peace of mind Sarah and me too, I’m very grateful for the peace and safety we have so far in this country. Let’s just keep calm and enjoy life while it lasts 😌
Thank you so much, Média. This is a wise perspective. I feel so sick about the war in the Middle East, to the point where I wonder why that’s what I’m obsessing about when I know Ukraine is the war that has more potential to affect me. It must be really difficult to listen to how Western media outlets talk about Iran. May your loved ones be safe!
I moved to Europe (Geneva) 18 months ago. I lived four years in Africa in the past. I like it here, but I'm very much still an American. Some of that is that Geneva is so international and the Swiss are somewhat insular, some of it is that I have two small kids I'd like to have remain connected to their country of origin. In the current political situation, I'm always struck by the fact that living overseas, you really lose all of the normal from back home that continues even in tumultuous times, the barbecues, the pta meeting, the commutes and so on. I was in Africa in 2016-2017 and it was the same.
Yes, I reflect on this often. There’s a limited time (perhaps a year or so), when you notice all the little differences. And then they melt into background and start to feel normal. I actually love that feeling of slipping into being local. It can be jarring to go back to your country of origin afterwards though, and realise how foreign it seems now.
As an expat Australian I have a mixed bag on this. I do often feel out of place when I go home (usually once or twice a year from the US to see my mum and stepdad and friends) but at the same time there are certain people, places, smells, tastes that immediately make me feel more like a local. I fear a big part of that is still having access to my childhood home and I suspect a drastic change once that is no longer an option.
If you feel this way, there is a book that may interest you: William L. Shirer 'Berlin Diary'
Thanks! I’m always up for a book recommendation.
Thank you for the angst. It is much needed to keep the world in perspective, a healthy one. Erma Bombeck once wrote, “The grass is always greener over the septic tank.” Not to say any other place is shit, but that each place that looks better comes with its own ‘stuff,’ at least that’s how I interpret it. Why humans stopped hand-to-hand sword or club fighting, I will never understand. Where is that damned planet-killing asteroid?
Imparting angst to the world is my special gift.
Oh, I think about this all the time. I’m an American in the UK and a friend is from Ukraine. He settled here a couple decades ago. He had to get his sister, brother in law and their two children out of there when the war started. His family is here on refugee visas. I’m just hoping I am in a remote enough place we can get through any upcoming hostilities.
What a harrowing experience trying to get his family to safety. When my book club discussed Prophet Song a few months ago, it was shocking to me how many of our international group had experiences that directly related. We’re an international group, and I remember not only our Ukrainian member sharing her family’s story, but also our Iranian, Romanian and Colombian members. What for me is novel and terrifying for them is terrifying in a different way, because it’s not new.
It was harrowing. He pulled every favour with colleagues all across the continent, so they had a place to stay in their journey. he holds Dutch citizenship and then did the paperwork to get them to the UK where he lives. Everything they had is pretty much gone.
And others are fighting and dying in the trenches so he can be safe.
He is nearly 60. He wouldn’t be in the trenches fighting.
He’s nearly 60. I don’t think he’d be on the front lines.
No, guess not. Though people of 60 are protecting their country in other ways. And don't now where he is from. Lyiv is no Mariopol or Charkiv.
Odessa. he is a theoretical physicist
Will Continental Europe be engulfed by war any time soon? I don't think so. At least not directly. But indirectly we will. Let's assume that Trump brokers a deal between Ukraine and Russia in 2025, creating a new border on Ukraine soil. Let's also reasonably assume that neither Russia nor Ukraine will be happy with the deal. The border (and the deal) will need to be monitored for infringements. This will be a job for (European) Nato soldiers. The border between Ukraine and Russia is roughly 2500 KM. How many soldiers will be needed to monitor this border? I have no idea, but if South Korea needs 450k troops to control a 250 KM border with its northern neighbour, it may be an indication of the indirect impact the war will have on us all. That's the sad reality, I'm afraid.
I had not considered this, but it makes sense. I was taking the Amsterdam metro a lot last month, and noticed big advertisements recruiting for the Dutch military at every station. Whether for the purpose you mention or general defence, European countries are ramping up their military capabilities.
So true. Now we're just shipping material. The Ukrainians are doing the fighting. Chances are high that in future we'll be shipping material + troops. That's quite a different scenario.
I do think about it. We bought a house in SW France this past summer. I feel like it’s a chance I’m willing to take.
Congratulations on your new house! I hope my fears of doom and gloom come to nothing, and you have many happy years there.
Thanks. Me too. We will hope together.
Loved running across today's piece, as I love long-form (formerly "in depth" and still my preferred phrase) writing. Yours flows nicely! I lived in S. France in (gasp!) 1965-66 and travelled in the warm countries some. I love Europe....and I support Ukraine as best I can.
Thanks for reading!
When the war in Ukraine broke out, I felt a lot of anxiety. I live in Switzerland, and there were quite a few tv debates on Russia’s nuclear capabilities. I was depressed at the time, and I remember waking up in the morning and thinking, oh, we’re still here!! Now it does play on my mind, but mentally I’m better, and I figure there’s not much I can do about it, so I just try to make the most of every day. Interesting read! Thank you 🙏
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so glad you're doing better these days. It's incredible what the human mind can get used to, isn't it? I'm mostly doing better too. It was those uber-prepared Swedes who set me off this time!
Oh please, get some perspective and educate yourself. And you were in Switzerland🤣. If you had been an Ukrainian women in Mariopol, yeah, you had reason to worry.