About Me

Hello! Thank you for visiting my personal website. I am a political scientist with a background in both international relations and comparative politics, although my research interests have increasingly drawn me to the study of American politics, especially American civil-military relations. The underlying theme of these research interests is the question “how do different military policies affect states and the people who live in them?” Lately, my research has primarily focused on military recruitment and mobilization. I am particularly interested in understanding the American public's knowledge of and attitudes toward the American military, and how these attitudes shape and are shaped by military recruitment and force management policies. More broadly, I am interested in researching, writing, and teaching about strategy and conflict; civil-military relations; military innovation and effectiveness; and state formation and state building. 

I am a faculty member at the United States Military Academy, where I have worked since 2018. Currently, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of History and War Studies. My previous roles have included Director of Research at the Modern War Institute at West Point (2020–2025) and Executive Director of the Department of Social Sciences's Rupert H. Johnson Grand Strategy Program (2018–2020).

​​Originally from Connecticut, I went to McGill University in Montréal to receive my BA (in Political Science), earned an MA in Political Science at Columbia University, and completed my PhD in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. I now live in Cornwall, NY. When not doing research or teaching, I enjoy playing tennis, horseback riding, reading, and spending time with my family, friends, and pets. You can reach me:

by email, at [email protected] 
on Bluesky, @mzmargulies.