Shortly after the terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, Nabe reacted to the event by writing an essay entitled "Une lueur d'espoir" ('A Glimmer of Hope'), in which he commented on the media coverage of the event and asserted that Osama bin Laden was acting in self-defence against the USA. Nabe's interest in the conflicts in the Middle-East led him to travel to Iraq prior to its American invasion in 2003. The trip served as material for the novel "Printemps de Feu".