ABSTRACT
From the beginning of the novel, The Power Game, the reader is aware that the US undersecretary of state for security affairs, Peter Cutler, is forced to resign for having jeopardized an American military raid meant to prevent the transfer of nuclear technology from Pakistan to Iran. The novel traces the events leading to this tragic outcome particularly Cutler’s protracted battle to persuade the fictional Kent administration to rely primarily on American soft power in its attempts to stop nuclear proliferation.When diplomacy fails to achieve the desired outcome, the administration decides to use military force to prevent the sale of nuclear technology from Pakistan to Iran. In this context, Cutler faces a moral dilemma, as the planned American raid might kill a friend from his student days at Princeton, the Pakistani nuclear engineer Ali Aziz, who is now in charge of the nuclear installation to be attacked. While being a firm believer in the necessity of Pakistan possessing atomic weapons to balance the nuclear arsenal of its larger neighbour, India, Aziz has been horrified by the plans of the new Pakistani regime to sell nuclear technology to Iran, and has, at great personal risk, provided the American intelligence services with vital information about the Pakistani nuclear programme. In the end, Cutler sends Aziz a cryptic message warning him of the impending raid. Aziz does not heed the warning of his friend and dies during the American raid, as do a number of American commandos having accomplished their mission (Nye 2004b).
