Never

This short section of only three chapters reflects the rise in tension as the US now enters DEFCON 2. Not only has the pacing of the plot increased, but so have the instances and depth of foreshadowing. Pauline asks Gus to review the steps in opening the nuclear football and declaring war. This practice enactment takes the reader through the nerve-wracking steps, along with the President and the head of the NSA. It is impossible not to imagine this as anything but a practice run for what is to come in the novel. Kai has an epiphany when he notices the Japanese leader had used the same phrase as Neil and that neither had been surprised to learn that the South was beginning an invasion that would overthrow the North Korean regime. They had information he did not, which Kai realizes is “very bad for an intelligence chief” (715). The information, it turns out, is that the South planned to invade the North. This could be foreshadowing of his upcoming loss of status. Pauline’s concerns about Kai being a free agent continue to prove accurate, as he meets with North Korean rebels and promises that China will recognize them as the rightful leaders, a promise made without prior Chinese authorization. The reader must wonder if Kai’s privileged life has made him blind to potential dangers of acting without authority.

The novel speaks to The Ethics and Counterproductivity of Diplomacy and International Relations as well as Globalization and the Threat of Nuclear War in the 21st Century in these chapters. The world is incredibly tangled through diplomacy and international relations, and as these networks become tighter, the action becomes quicker and the threat of nuclear war becomes more immediate. The countries involved are so interconnected that slight actions have a ripple effect across all of the involved nations, and globalization is seen to be causing only entanglement and miscommunication across the globe. Diplomacy has done nothing to deescalate tensions or prevent a world war and has instead bolstered support networks so that all actions have not only immediate but monumental effects, spreading their impact across all of the world’s nations. Diplomacy has not even created stable support networks among those nations that are allied; these nations betray each other at crucial moments. The support networks have seemingly done everything to cause tensions to escalate, with an attack on one country being an attack on all allied countries, but they have done nothing to establish loyalty; in this sense, diplomacy and international relations are truly counterproductive and pointless. The threat of nuclear war becomes a reality.

A byproduct of mounting tensions are the racial attacks that occur against Koreans in both the US and Japan. In the US there are lone wolf attacks, likely the result of generalized racism and anti-Asian sentiment. In Japan the media uses propaganda to enflame old anti-Korean prejudices, while in China old humiliations over Japanese colonial rule of the peninsula (1910-1945) come to the surface, leading some of the old guard to call for more extreme responses. The novel shows the older communists operating emotionally rather than as more rational moderates like Kai. A similar dichotomy develops between Pauline’s demagogue rival and her more measured responses. Geopolitics and personal vanities also play into responses concerning the Korean peninsula. President No of South Korea sees the current instability as her opportunity to reunite the two countries and refuses to forestall the South’s invasion. She also does not wish for her people to remember her as the president who failed to seize the opportunity to unite them. China does not want the peninsula reunited under the South’s rule as it will eliminate the buffer between itself and the Western-leaning nation. Human weaknesses such as humiliation or vanity, or national self-interest, in these instances are seen to trump preventing the escalation toward WWIII.

Stereotypes of Women and Power comes into play here, too, as readers see the most of President No and thus witness a female leader whose plotline does not involve a romantic relationship. While President No demonstrates full professional commitment and does not emblematize the sexist stereotypes the author sometimes leans into, Pauline does become increasingly involved in a relationship with Gus during these escalating moments. The novel engages in stereotypes of women in power by being unable to portray Pauline simply as a woman in power without a romantic subplot or a subplot dominated by a man. Even her preparations for nuclear war involve Gus, although she shows agency and independence when navigating these international relations concerns.