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Foreign influence in the United States is frequently examined through covert operations: clandestine payments, hidden intermediaries, unauthorized leaks, fabricated accounts, or foreign intelligence direction. While such methods exist, they do not represent the primary or most durable channel through which foreign governments and political parties seek to shape American political debate. A substantial share of…

Introduction: The Invisible Infrastructure of Modern Political Influence One of the defining features of twenty-first-century political influence is that it increasingly operates without the traditional appearance of political organization. There may be no foreign embassy issuing instructions, no intelligence officer handing an activist a dossier, and no government ministry openly directing a protest. Influence instead…

Introduction: The Gang That Became a System For decades, the Mexican cartel problem was largely described as a problem of organized crime: violent gangs producing drugs, bribing officials, fighting over territory, and moving contraband across the U.S.-Mexico border. That description was never entirely wrong. It is simply no longer sufficient. The modern cartel is not…

The Incomplete Picture of Democracy Democracy is usually described as a system in which citizens choose their leaders through elections. That description is accurate, but it is incomplete. Citizens cannot make political choices without information. Before anyone votes, he or she must decide which candidates are trustworthy, which allegations are credible, which threats are real,…

Remember how a retired senior intelligence officer purportedly told reporter John Solomon that the intel community worked to delegitimize President Trump in 2016 and neutralize him in 2020? “Operation Round River” was a 2019-2020 counterintelligence effort that flagged Biden family Ukraine-related corruption evidence from informants as Russian disinformation. Declassified ODNI summaries and FBI records confirm…

The world is best understood as a contest of competing interests—states and movements advancing their power, security, and influence relative to rivals. That contest did not pause in 1945. The defeat of Nazi Germany removed one adversary and immediately opened another struggle, conducted through occupation, covert action, proxy forces, political subversion, and the shaping of…

Reporter John Solomon reported that a retired senior intelligence officer told him that the intelligence community turned its domestic playbook inward to topple our legitimately elected President, Donald J. Trump, in 2016 and to ensure he would not be reelected in 2020. This fits a well-established history of U.S. intervention abroad. Operation Gladio (1952–1990): Originally…

Good morning! What are we fighting for? Why are people out here trying to alert the world to the problems that are coming at us that we may not be seeing? It is because there are some very determined bad people who want to take all the resources of the world and hoard them for…

A serious strategy against violent extremism must begin with precision. Islam is a global religion practiced by diverse societies, communities, and individuals; terrorism is a method of coercion employed by particular organizations, networks, and ideologues. Groups such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their affiliates have exploited Islamic language to legitimize violence, but they do not represent…

Introduction: The Problem of Reading Trump One of the most persistent judgments about Donald Trump’s foreign policy is that it is irrational. The judgment is understandable. Trump routinely violates the conventions by which American presidents have traditionally communicated foreign policy: He threatens tariffs and then negotiates with the countries he has threatened. He demands that…