New Report Highlights Risks of Foreign Interference in U.S. and Other Democracies

“In this year of elections in liberal democracies, concerns over foreign influence have only grown, amplified by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s assertive foreign policy, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” asserts a new Council Special Report, Foreign Influence and Democratic Governance.  

The author, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow for global governance, Miles Kahler, says that “malign foreign influence should be defined and assessed, countermeasures developed, and the risks associated with those responses carefully evaluated.” 

While the report states that “foreign influence conducted in an open, legal, and transparent fashion contributes to successful U.S. foreign policy,” it clarifies that “malign foreign influence” is intended to affect domestic politics through “coercive, corrupting, deceptive, or clandestine means.” 

Kahler identifies three key avenues of influence: money, information, and people.  

Money 

Concerning money, he notes that “the oldest form of foreign influence remains one of the most widespread.” Money and other material benefits are used to “win elite favor; support favored political candidates and parties; fund expensive lobbying campaigns; and induce self-censorship by private corporations, think tanks, and universities.” 

Information 

Regarding information manipulation, “foreign use of information for tactical reasons, such as election meddling” garners much public attention. He attributes the resurgence of foreign use of disinformation to “growing distrust and deregulation of mainstream news media; the demise of credible, local news sources; and the rise of new internet-based social media, which have become major sources of news for the public.” 

But Kahler emphasizes that authoritarian regimes also aim to “alter perceptions of their regimes and shift the foreign policies of democracies” over time through their influence in cultural industries, universities, and think tanks.  

People 

Kahler highlights that authoritarian governments have long sought political allies across borders. Globalization has added new dimensions to the foreign influence landscape, as authoritarian regimes permit travel and emigration, and diasporas—communities with links to their previous homelands—become their targets for manipulation and intimidation.   

Responding to Malign Foreign Influence

Kahler highlights four tasks in responding to malign foreign influence: 

• “accurate assessment of the scale of foreign influence and its effects” 
• “careful evaluation of responses, given the threat assessment” 
• “assessment of the risks, international and domestic, associated with those responses” 
• “identification of shortcomings in domestic institutions and policies required to adequately protect democratic governance” 

Kahler concludes that resilience in our political institutions and practices—fixing “shortcomings in U.S. democracy”—is key to reducing malign foreign influence. He points to loopholes in campaign finance laws, weak protection of personal data, and the lack of civic education on misinformation among other vulnerabilities.  

Kahler also stresses that building “domestic consensus” on democratic response is crucial, warning that without it, “political division will provide a ready entry point for malign foreign actors.” He argues that exaggeration of the risks of foreign influence can also lead to damaging responses by heightening backlash against immigrant communities and undermining beneficial international relationships. 

Lastly, he finds international consensus to be unlikely, but supporting international debate on the issue “could provide a platform for democracies to advance the aim of societies that remain both open and secure in setting their own futures.”  

To read Foreign Influence and Democratic Governance, visit www.cfr.org/foreign-influence.  

To interview Professor Kahler, please contact [email protected].