The State(s) of Foreign Information Operations: A State-by-State Look at Foreign Information Manipulation in the United States

Sikora and Schafer's state-level mapping of foreign information operation exposure in the United States is methodologically novel: evaluating each state's vulnerability across media ecosystem health, legislative frameworks governing foreign influence, and civil society monitoring capacity — the first systematic comparative assessment of sub-national FIMI vulnerability in any democratic country.

Foreign interference operations increasingly target specific states and communities rather than the national political system as a whole. For US-focused practitioners and policymakers, this report provides the most granular available baseline for identifying where protective investment is most urgently needed. The state-level methodology is also potentially transferable to other federal systems.