Conceptualizing Foreign Interference in Europe

Berzina and Soula's analytical framework distinguishes between three categories — foreign influence (legitimate), foreign interference (illegitimate but non-coercive), and foreign intervention (coercive) — and maps EU and member state response architecture against each. The conceptual precision matters: conflating influence and interference produces both analytical errors and policy overreach.

The framework complements Ördén and Pamment's Carnegie paper on the same definitional terrain and should be read alongside it. Where Ördén and Pamment focus on international law dimensions, Berzina and Soula focus on the European institutional response architecture — what the EU and its member states can actually do in response to different categories of interference.