Megan Maxwell is a PhD student in International Relations at the University of Chicago. She studies the role of domestic and international constraints on state leaders when it comes to managing foreign influence in domestic politics, with a focus on agency in the face of the relative material constraints imposed on middle and smaller powers. She also has interests in military effectiveness and the role of middle powers in state emergence in the international system.

Prior to entering U. Chicago's PhD program, Megan spent a year as a Junior Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's South Asia program. Before that, she received a B.A. from Temple University double-majoring in Economics and Global Studies and receiving undergraduate certificates in GIS and political economy. She also worked for the U.S. Army for seven years as a soldier. Her service included a deployment to Afghanistan and providing reach back support to units in Afghanistan from the United States on two occasions, in addition to other tasks. During her undergraduate studies, she worked for the Pennsylvania National Guard where she assisted developing and executing training plans to help junior soldiers prepare to perform their duties in a deployed environment.