The Embarcadero

Taking the stroller for a walk along the San Francisco waterfront, it is strange to imagine that in less than 48 hours, our aircraft will be flying in over the Korean Peninsula and we will be back at the epicentre of all the recent belligerent rhetoric. As a parent, it of course becomes particularly difficult to make the decision to go back under the current circumstances. On one hand, we are returning to a city of twenty million people including some of our best friends, not to mention all the students and the different professional responsibilities that await us. On the other hand, it is difficult not to wonder what people returning to Warsaw in August 1939 were thinking, if they were just as certain as we are that rationality would prevail and that the security guarantees given by the Western powers would make war unthinkable.

Obviously, the Poland-analogy is halting since a total war would mean a quick end to the KFR (or the “Kim Family Regime”, as the DPRK is referred to in American military lingo). Knowing this, I remain optimistic that the current dark clouds will blow away.