Defining Foreign Influence and Interference

Fridman's INSS special publication takes on one of the most consequential definitional problems in the field: the distinction between foreign influence and foreign interference, and the inadequacy of existing frameworks — hybrid warfare, gray zone, FIMI — to capture that distinction with sufficient precision. Drawing on a systematic review of these frameworks, Fridman constructs standalone definitions of each concept, identifying what makes an operation an instance of influence rather than interference, and vice versa.

The definitional precision developed here has direct operational and legal implications. Most counter-FIMI policy conflates influence and interference, producing frameworks that either over-reach (treating legitimate political communication as interference) or under-reach (failing to capture covert manipulation that stops short of obvious interference). Fridman's framework provides the conceptual architecture for avoiding both errors. Produced as part of an INSS-IICC collaboration, this publication carries the authority of serious academic and security policy engagement with a problem that most practitioners treat as settled when it manifestly is not.