Max Bouchet is the Deputy Director for City and State Diplomacy at the Truman Center for National Policy. Max was previously Visiting Senior Fellow for City & State Diplomacy at Truman.

Max leads a growing portfolio of research on the role of cities and local governments in addressing global challenges such as climate change, economic recovery, and the protection of democracy. His research has contributed to elevating subnational diplomacy and city networking as key drivers of 21st-century multilateralism. He develops high-level relationships between local and national leaders to explore the collective influence of cities and local actors in the multilateral system and highlight the intersections of domestic prosperity and foreign policy.

Previously, Max was the Applied Research Manager for State and Local Governments at Guidehouse. Before joining Truman, Max was a Senior Policy Analyst and Senior Project Manager at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. At Brookings, Max co-managed the Local Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiative and the SDG Leadership Cities Network, a community of practice of cities from the Global South and North to identify solutions for advancing sustainability and inclusion in local communities. Max was also a Research Analyst at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, where he helped manage the Global Cities Initiative and researched the economic development of metro regions.

Max holds a B.A in Political Science and a Master of Public Affairs, both from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris, France). Max is an Associate Fellow with the City Diplomacy Lab (Columbia Global Centers | Paris). Previously, Max was a fellow of the Global Governance Futures – Robert Bosch Foundation Multilateral Dialogues, a graduate of the 2022 Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance, and a member of the Truman Task Force for City and State Diplomacy.