1. Go shopping https://www.privateislandsonline.com
2. Use the remaining billions to purchase a military force
3. Declare yourself sovereign
4. Export your goods and services at reasonable prices.
5. Be recognized by international organizations
6. You're literally a country for less than $24B
You need to largely be self sustaining before step 3, otherwise, even with a military, you are exposed to blockades and attrition.
Seems like more of a money pit than an investment
the challenge with declaring sovereignty is international g8 recognition
Source: got to step 4
> 5. Be recognized by international organizations
Good luck with that. No one has been able to do it for decades on unclaimed land like Sealand or Liberland. And you want to essentially annex another country's territory by force and be recognized? That's pure fantasy.
It happens every decade: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/newest-co...
That's not an argument made in good faith. You call the collapse of the USSR into Russia a "new country"? How many of these so called "new" countries are just single billionaires annexing some island they bought and being recognized by international institutions? I'll tell you how many: exactly zero. Total fantasy.
Ok let's take a step back. Get a .int domain by doing something scientific. Build CERN 2.0 on your new land and you're going to be very welcomed by other countries. It should only cost 8-9B for that and then this step is complete.
Sorry, but this is yet another out of touch fantasy that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how international politics and state recognition work. Buying an island and building a mega science facility like "CERN 2.0" doesn’t entitle you to nationhood. Even if you poured billions into infrastructure and claimed independence with your own private military, you wouldn’t be recognized as a sovereign state.
Recognition isn't just about capability or money, it's about political legitimacy. No major country would support such a move because it sets a dangerous precedent. If unilateral declarations of independence by billionares were normalized, it would embolden separatist movements globally, from Catalonia to Kashmir to Taiwan and undermine existing international norms. That’s a geopolitical headache no one wants.
Even CERN 3.0 won't get you a seat at the UN.
I'm not buying it. 24B buys you anything, including a nation.
Well, you can believe what you want, but the reality is that no one bought any country with billions and was recognized by international institutions. That's just reality, not belief and I’ve already explained the reason for that.