PROTOCOL

Protocol, notes Marshall, who also served as social secretary for the Clintons for eight years, is a strategic tactic in diplomacy that can be just that element that seals the deal, “the structure that houses the dignitaries as they have the crucial conversations.” As the daughter of two immigrants—a Mexican mother and a Croatian father—raised in Cleveland, the author professes a passion for ways to “bridge cultural divides and influence the outcome of [clients’] engagements.” Unsurprisingly given her career, Marshall’s first book is sharply organized. She begins with some of the highlights from her high-level work—e.g., in 2012, when Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met for the first time as presidents at the G20 economic summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. There, Marshall had to execute a “high-wire act” to help ensure her president’s most advantageous outcome: room, décor, seating arrangement, table setting, food, and interpreter. The scene worked perfectly then, though a year later, when the same two leaders met for the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, it was a “cold, unproductive reunion” and a logistical disaster: massive open tent, weak lighting, no food, and chair placement that offered “only a three-quarter view of the other’s face.” The author demonstrates the importance of the “twin engines of protocol: bridging and persuading,” and her many behind-the-scenes anecdotes are both instructive and entertaining. The meticulous care that goes into table setting, food presentation, and appropriate gifts all convey one’s identity and eagerness to negotiate. Within the rules of etiquette, the author writes, “lies a hidden world of communication and leverage” as well as “intention and feeling.” Marshall’s story is fascinating, but especially illuminating are the concluding chapters, “Negotiating While Female” and “What Would Capricia Do?: A Handbook of Protocol and Etiquette.”

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