In the late 80s/early 90s, I read a pair of books featuring the same female protagonist, who worked for an interplanetary federation of some sort, and worked to protect less-developed civilizations. In the first book, she's fresh from the academy, and on a planet with a medievalish level of technology, thwarts a scheme to terrorize the populace with technologies which they take to be magical, including a "dragon." In the sequel, she's undercover on a planet locked in a cold war-type confrontation, trying to defuse the situation. As I recall, she fails to do so, but escapes. Any ideas as to what the titles or author of these books might be?