Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work For You

08/23/20 • 29 min

The new semester might be getting started, but the weather still feels like summer here in Philadelphia, and we hope you find time to enjoy a few more books on your summer reading list before the fall truly sets in. Our latest guest on our Summer Reading List podcast is Ambassador Capricia Marshall, who served as Chief of Protocol of the United States from 2009 to 2013, overseeing the details of democracy during countless state visits and global summits. Her new book is titled Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work For You.

In our conversation, Marshall explains what protocol is, and why people often best understand its importance only when it goes wrong; whether shifts in the international order are affecting protocol practices; and how COVID-19 has changed her rules for good protocol.

The Summer Reading List is a special edition of our podcast, The Global Cable. Throughout the summer, we're releasing new conversations with authors, discussing their latest books and the inspiration behind them.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

Previous Episode

The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

Our guest this week is Eric Cervini, an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture. A former Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where he received his Ph.D., he is an authority on 1960s gay activism. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus, and on the Board of Advisors of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit dedicated to preserving gay American history. Cervini’s new book, The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, is a history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall.

In our conversation, Cervini tells the story of World War Two veteran Frank Kameny, whose security clearance was rejected because he was gay and who became an important figure in the American gay rights movement; what the absence of some gay activists from the public narrative says about who we remember and why; and how the United States should honor its LGBTQ+ heroes.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.

Next Episode

Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars

With Labor Day behind us and the weather cooling down, summer is very nearly over - but there's still time for one more episode of our special Summer Reading List podcast series. Our last episode features Barbara Elias, an Assistant Professor of Government at Bowdoin College specializing in international relations, insurgency warfare, U.S. foreign policy, and the relationship between Islam and politics. Her new book, Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars, was released by Cambridge University Press in June. In our conversation, Professor Elias explains why local forces in war-torn countries may choose to cooperate with - or defy - a foreign intervening power; what the stories she tells in her book, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, mean for the future of U.S. foreign policy; and how to approach research in archives.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.