In fact, humans have always lived in the age of post-truth. Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, whose power depends on creating and believing fictions. Ever since the Stone Age, self-reinforcing myths have served to unite human collectives. Indeed, Homo sapiens conquered this planet thanks above all to the unique human ability to create and spread fictions. We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws, and can thereby cooperate effectively.

Source: 21 Lessons For The 21st Century, book by Yuval Noah Harari

Weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons - present a persistent risk to the U.S. and international security. If a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb, like the one tested by North Korea in 2013, is dropped in Washington, DC, a fireball of almost 500 feet in radius will cover the city.2 The radiation will reach such high levels within a half a mile radius that 50-90% percent of people could die without medical help – some of them within hours.  

When it comes to preventing WMD proliferation, we need to be conscious of both state and non-state actors. North Korea continues to procure sensitive goods for its nuclear and missile program in defiance of sanctions. Iran is procuring missile-related goods. Agents working on behalf of Syria have sought chemical goods on the commercial market. Several groups, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, demonstrated interest in acquiring a WMD capability. We do not have a full picture of who might be interested in obtaining a WMD capability in the future.

Source: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, The Exploitation of the Global Financial Systems for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Proliferation

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

On 22–23 February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security service chiefs to discuss the extrication of the deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. At the end of the meeting, Putin remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia". On 23 February, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February, masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Supreme Council (parliament) of Crimea and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the pro-Russian Sergey Aksyonov government in Crimea, the conducting of the Crimean status referendum(,) and the declaration of Crimea's independence on 16 March 2014. Russia formally incorporated Crimea as two Russian federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol on 18 March 2014. Following the annexation, Russia escalated (its) military presence on the peninsula and leveraged nuclear threats to solidify the new status quo on the ground.

Source: Wikipedia, Annexation of Crimea By The Russian Federation

North Korea has been mitigating the impact of robust international sanctions to fund its missile programme through stolen cryptocurrency. The country stole more than $50m (£37m) in digital assets between 2020 and mid-2021 according to UN investigators - although others have put the figure nearer to $400m (£295m).

Source: Sky News, North Korea Funding Its Missile Programme With Stolen Cryptocurrency UN Investigators Say

Cryptocurrency payments to military and hacktivist groups in Ukraine aimed at countering Russian aggression against the country spiked sharply in the second half of 2021, according to cryptocurrency tracing and blockchain analysis firm Elliptic. Crowdfunded payments to those organizations in bitcoin, litecoin, ether, and other cryptocurrencies the company tracks reached a total value of around $550,000 last year, compared with just $6,000 or so in 2020 and less still in previous years, even at the height of Russia's 2014 invasion of the country.

That half a million dollars is no doubt just a small fraction of the total funds Ukrainian defense and hacktivism groups have raised by more traditional means amid Russia's recent escalations, says Tom Robinson, Elliptic's founder. But the sudden rise of cryptocurrency within these global donations demonstrates how borderless, often unregulated crypto payments could fund organizations engaged in future conflicts. “Crypto is censorship-resistant, so there's no chance they're going to get their funds seized or their account shut down, like might happen with PayPal, and it's also more amenable to cross-border donations,” says Robinson. “It’s proved itself to be a robust way to fund wars.”

One Ukrainian group called Come Back Alive, for instance, has raised $200,000 for Ukrainian troops in just the second half of 2021, according to Elliptic. The group originally solicited donations for military equipment like bulletproof vests, but it has since expanded into funding the purchase of reconnaissance and targeting systems. A more controversial group called the Myrotvorets (Ukrainian for "Peacemaker") Center has publicly named and shamed alleged supporters of Russia or pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine—at least two of whom were subsequently assassinated. Myrotvorets has raised $268,000 in cryptocurrency to date, Elliptic says, of which $237,000 came just in the second half of last year.

Pro-Ukrainian hacktivists, too, have increasingly funded their digital resistance through cryptocurrency. Elliptic traced around $100,000 worth of crypto donations to a hacker group called the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, which has been responsible for numerous hack-and-leak and web defacement operations targeting Russians and Russian government agencies. Cyber Partisans, a Belarusian hacktivist group that gained global attention by launching a politically motivated ransomware attack on Belarus' rail system, has also raised around $84,000 in cryptocurrency.

Source: WIRED, Cryptocurrency Is Funding Ukraine's Defense—and Its Hacktivists