You have zero nukes.

Yes, but I have 10 years to acquire them.

Start a nuclear weapons program and hope I make some in time. This is simply just the best option period. I know its lame and uncreative but it is the greatest deterrant.

1. Get nukes.
2. Make incredibly sweet business deals with every nation, making being attacked by one a threat to ally he others.
3. Hope 1 or 2 works or we’re fucked.
4. I guess we’re fucked.

The joke’s on you, I’ve been training for this day since the very first Tropico game.

Develop or trade for nukes. Literally anything else leads to us being conquered or destroyed.

Get nuclear weapons ASAP.

Well. This is fortunate.

I happen to be the dictator of a moderately developed island sitting on top of the world’s richest deposit of rare earth minerals.

First things first. I am a god. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. I will arrange for a few “dissidents” to attempt to assassinate me. As these attempts will miraculously fail, I will use this to push a media campaign to cement my divine status. Within the first year, I am not only the dictator for life but the figurehead of my own church. My word carries the weight of not only earthly retribution but eternal retribution.

I do not make requests of my people, I issue orders. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. My populace will be armed. Every man and woman of at least age 16 to the age of 40 is to train every day with rifles. The school curriculum is to revolve around both adoration of the figurehead, and logistics, teamwork, and the defense of the island. All citizens of Sippylandia are henceforth to refer to themselves and each other as Soldier.

The island will need some industry. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. All students will take a placement exam each year. Those with the aptitude will learn to become engineers. The strongest leaders will become officers. We will select for the best educators, the best scientists, the best doctors.

As the citizens will have very little say over their own prosperity, all services will be provided at the pleasure of the State. This is necessary for the development of Sippylandia. No man, woman, or child will ever want for a meal, a roof, or a doctor. As developing nations go, this is the long game, but we will at least begin to see the benefit after ten years.

Sippylandia will need to obtain diplomatic missions from superpowers. As we contain deep reserves of rare earth minerals, this will be easy. Sippylandia will promise access to these minerals. If the foreign powers bring in educators, build faculties and infrastructure, of course. The rare collection and relative ease of access to these minerals from within Sippylandia’s DMZ will make the rather limited terms of access.

With only 10 years to establish industry, the first minerals being stopped at the shore by militant locals will likely be the cause of the first attack. This is necessary for the defense of Sippylandia. Even with ten years of training and an island population of soldiers, we will not be able to withstand the full onslaught of a superpower for long. But we will make every mile hurt. It is not necessary to repel the super power, only attract the attention of her enemies. It’s unlikely that the attack occurs without our allies noticing. And a luxurious new contract awaits whomever comes to our defense first. This will be central to every contract for mineral access signed by every superpower. Any aggression will be repelled by all other signatories, and more lucrative access awaits.

Of course, we will be unable to mine these resources ourselves. What with the devastating attack. The populace will need to focus on repopulation, so foreign workers will be to make up the bulk of the manual labor. The God King SippyCup will not have his glorious citizens reduced to manual labor. This is necessary for the prosperity and security of Sippylandia.

Buy nukes, pursue them by all means possible. There are many unaccounted-for nukes since Soviet Union collapse.

Nothing else will work. Compare, say, Libya or Ukraine or Iraq or etc. to North Korea, a small, weak nation in comparison to the USA

First move: immediately turn over the dictatorship to a council elected by trades unions and community groups to manage in the interest of all people on the island.

Second move, tell them about this impending threat and allow the new revolutionary council to deal with this issue. As a mechanical engineer I’m not beat suited to the role of dictator

9 years to get nukes, 1 year to bankrupt the country and seek asylum in Russia.

Cyberwarefare and a fuckton of drones.

Use the cyber division to infect the computers of your attacker’s military and to collect enough data to backmail high ranking officials.

Drones are hard to stop when they attack in a swarm.

Underwater drones wouldn’t be a bad idea either to attack any military that gets too close. Maybe a last ditch effort to take them down with you.

I become an intel broker.

Create the most vast espionage network ever conceived of and use my and my country’s so-called plot armor to avoid any potential consequences. I will use my network to infiltrate those governments to the highest possible levels, collecting intel on every program they have. I then create an indispensable, worldwide intel marketplace where these rival nation can acquire whatever info they need about each other. As insurance, I make it so that, if invaded, this intel marketplace instantly vanishes, and the identities of all rival nation agents are made public.

This may not guarantee my country’s survival, but it will guarantee that whoever attacks me will get their asses handed to them by those other nine nations.

Aim for alliances with at least half the top militaries. If one is going to be gunning for us, I want their peers to have our back.

To that end, pick an island location with a strong command of shipping lanes, both to offer access to allies and to boost our economy. The invincible force field will help enforce this while we get set up. Offer temporarily invincible military bases to our allies - give them more reason to back us up, and hopefully jumpstart our military readiness.

Otherwise I’d go utopian like @Tonava said - entice the best and the brightest, and have them play to their strengths, aiming to have a robust, well-educated populace.

I’d build the greatest damn utopia the world has ever seen for my citizens. Get the best scientists and researchers and listen their ideas, and implement them. Put up a council of some sort people can vote for, and let their decisions control the general things, unless they try to pull something stupid and turn towards populism or try to collapse the universal healthcare, education system, free housing or the universal income system, or some shit like that, and my benevolent ass has to step in to correct the course. Vaccine the entire population against every possible thing. Figure out best farming methods and enforce strict laws about animal welfare (this fucking utopia will be for animals as well). Get people behind strong workers unions. Tax the shit out of anyone hoarding too much of our community resources.

And use the ten years to develop nukes. Then after the decade I will threaten the invaders with nuclear war and if that halts the attack, abolish my seat and give the powers to the council system that’s been prepared for it, surrender myself to the enemy in exchange for a better deal for the island or let my citizens execute me for a political show to get better terms, and then let the citizens do whatever they want with their country. And if the nuke thread doesn’t work, I’ll just nuke the shit out of the invaders and let the whole world burn, since that’s what they wished for and I’m a crazy dictator.

Put me right next to Russia. Nobody else will want to invade because Literally WW3 You Guys and the Russians still thinks it’s 1945 so at least we can prepare for that