Crossing the Threshold: What Comes After the Bombs Fall

“We are not at the end of the world.

We are at the end of a world.

And what we choose to do now will shape what comes next.”

This morning, the United States dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites. Just like that, the ground shifts again. We are now living through a moment that could very well serve as a threshold into World War 3.

And yet….this was foreseeable.

For those of us working with foresight tools, observing military posturing, studying authoritarian resurgence, and listening to the ancestral pulse of this planet, this moment was not a surprise.

What we’re facing is not merely a new conflict. It is the visible cracking of a dying world system, one that no longer serves the wellbeing of people, place, or planet.

The Leadership Behind the Collapse

This crisis didn’t arrive out of nowhere. It has been engineered by a pattern of leadership philosophies now repeating across continents. We see personalist populism, leadership driven by ego, branding, and division. We see nationalist imperialism that frames war as destiny and control as legacy. In some regions, centralised statist ideologies are upheld, where surveillance replaces trust and obedience replaces dialogue. Elsewhere, ethno-religious populism elevates one identity above others, eroding pluralism and institutions in the name of cultural supremacy. And in others, theocratic autocracy cloaks control under the language of spiritual protection, weaponising belief to justify power.

Despite cultural and political differences, these approaches share a common logic: that power must be hoarded, people must be controlled, and fear must be normalised as a tool of governance. This philosophy spreads like fire through dry tinder, eroding trust, fragmenting societies, and turning citizens into soldiers for ideologies they do not fully understand.

What This Moment Really Is

This isn’t just geopolitics. This is systemic collapse in real time:

• The post-WWII global order is disintegrating.
• Multilateral institutions are failing to prevent escalation.
• The climate, economy, and information systems are all under stress, simultaneously.
• People feel it. In their bodies. In their sleep. In their spirit.

But it is not just collapse. It is also an opening.

A turning.

This is Te Ao Hurihuri, the Turning World. A moment between stories, between systems, between who we’ve been and who we could yet become. It’s uncomfortable. Unfamiliar. But also filled with potential.

Matariki has just risen, the tohu of our collective reset. A time for remembrance, release, and renewal. What timing, then, that this global moment of rupture arrives right as we are invited to honour those we’ve lost, reflect on what must be let go, and plant the intentions that will shape our collective return. Ko te mutunga kē mai, ko te tīmatanga hou. This is not coincidence. It is alignment.

The Future Demands a Different Kind of Leadership

I know you’re tired. Many of us are. The exhaustion is real, not just from work, but from carrying a sense that something deeper is wrong with the world. You’re not imagining it. Your body knows. Your wairua knows. And still, you’re here, reading this. That matters.

There’s something profoundly courageous about choosing to stay in tune with the reality of our shared situation, when it would be easier to numb out. And that courage, not perfection, is what this moment needs most.

If this world is ending, what kind of leadership births the next?

We need to pivot. From power-hoarding to power-sharing. From dominance to reciprocity. From ego-driven performance to intergenerational accountability.

We don’t need more charismatic saviours.
We need relational systems stewards who can weave across complexity with clarity, values, and courage.

Now, if you were looking for new information, or some sort of highly intellectual recommendation – why?! You know this is in your gut. This is not evolutionary leadership, it’s common sense.

Not reactive. Not technocratic. Not trapped in the binary of Left and Right. But grounded in:

• Whakapapa
• Interdependence
• Progressive governance
• Regenerative thinking
• Collective determination

A Transitional Strategy for a Turning World

Here’s what I propose as a pathway forward, not perfect, but possible:

1. Name the Collapse
   Stop gaslighting ourselves. The system is failing. Let’s name it with courage.
2. Tell the Truth
   We are closer to global war than we’ve been in 70 years (I hope we never get there). Most people sense it. Let’s say it out loud, so we can move with agency, not fear.
3. Seed New Myths
   Replace “civilisational showdown” with “intergenerational regeneration.” Reframe the story. Rewire the system.
4. Build the Parallel
   Support rangatahi leadership. Resurrect indigenous governance models. Decentralise care, tech, and data. Prototype now. Aotearoa, and Indigenous nations everywhere, carry threads of governance that were never based on domination. In these times, it is not about returning to the past, but remembering the parts of it that knew how to care for the whole.
5. Train the Navigators
   We need a generation skilled in futures thinking, systems practice, cultural integrity, and emotional literacy.
6. Hold the Line with Aroha
   This is going to hurt. Let’s move through it with mana, together.

A Call to the Future-Minded

If you’re reading this, if your gut has been whispering something’s coming, you’re already part of the shift. You’re not crazy. You’re tuned in.

Now is the time to speak. To organise. To remember what we know in our bones:

• That no war has ever brought peace.
• That no empire has ever endured without blood.
• That our mokopuna are watching, even if they’re not born yet.

The bombs may be falling, but we still get to decide who we become.

What You Can Do Now