Palmer, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, considers the possibility of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan in his thriller Secrets of State.
Why do you think the State Department is getting a lot of notice in the entertainment industry these days?
The world is an increasingly complex and scary place. I think the American public may be coming to terms with the limits of hard power—meaning traditional military and intelligence tools—in managing today’s challenges and is interested in the kind of multidimensional, partnership-based approach to problem solving that is diplomacy at its best. There was nothing especially subtle about Jack Bauer in 24; Tea Leoni’s world in Madam Secretary is considerably more complex.
Your novel concerns “the volatile India-Pakistan dynamic.” Can you explain?
I have to begin with the standard caveat that these views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of State. That said, I think it would be crazy not to be concerned about the risk of a conflict between these two uneasy neighbors escalating into a nuclear exchange. Of at least equal importance is the threat posed by nuclear terrorism, which is the central challenge addressed in Secrets of State.
How does the State Department’s Bureau on Intelligence and Research (INR) compare to the more well-known intelligence agencies?
INR is the fabulous little gem of the intelligence community. It’s small, but nimble. In my view, it is among the least bureaucratic of the intelligence agencies and often spot-on in its predictions. Most famously, INR was the only member of the intelligence community to reject the claim in the run-up to the Iraq War that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons capability.
Your late father, Michael Palmer, wrote medical thrillers, and your brother, Daniel Palmer, is a thriller author. What made you become a writer as well?
Our father encouraged both of us to write. I knew early on that writing fiction was something I wanted to try. When I started working on the issue of African conflict diamonds, I knew I had a great story, which became my first novel, The American Mission.
Did you pass manuscripts around the family and ask for opinions?
When we began all working as writers, we would brainstorm together and critique each other’s manuscripts. Only family can give it to you really straight. On the day The American Mission was published, I walked into my neighborhood Barnes & Noble. There, on the “new releases” shelf, my book, my brother’s latest, and my father’s last were lined up right alongside each other. Dad, sadly, had passed away about eight months before... but he would have loved that.
