The Center for Foreign Interference Research (CFIR) is a non-profit, non-government, non-partisan research organization dedicated to tracking, analyzing, and raising awareness of foreign interference activities targeting democracies around the world.
Founded in 2021 and based in Washington, D.C., CFIR focuses on interference directed at the Five Eyes nations — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States — while also monitoring global patterns and emerging threats.
Foreign interference undermines democratic institutions, erodes public trust, and threatens national sovereignty. Yet much of this activity goes unreported, under-analyzed, or buried across fragmented news sources. CFIR exists to change that.
We aggregate, classify, and publish research on foreign interference events so that journalists, policymakers, academics, and the public can understand the scale, methods, and actors involved. Our goal is to make this information accessible, searchable, and useful for defending democratic processes.
We publish original research reports on foreign interference events, drawing on open-source intelligence, government reports, court filings, academic papers, and investigative journalism. Each report is classified by source country, target country, and method of interference to enable pattern analysis across our database.
CFIR maintains a structured database of foreign interference incidents. Every entry is tagged with metadata including the actor (source country), the target, the methods used, and the date of the event. This allows researchers to query interference patterns by country, method, or time period.
Our Trends dashboard provides interactive visualizations of interference patterns over time, including which methods are most prevalent, which countries are most active as sources, and which nations are most frequently targeted.
Foreign interference takes many forms. CFIR classifies incidents using the following taxonomy of methods:
Covert or overt attempts to influence electoral processes, voter behavior, or election infrastructure in foreign countries.
Coordinated spreading of false or misleading information through media, social platforms, or fabricated outlets.
State-sponsored hacking, data theft, or surveillance targeting government, military, or private sector systems.
Actions by a foreign state to intimidate, surveil, harass, or silence diaspora communities and dissidents abroad.
Use of trade restrictions, sanctions threats, investment leverage, or debt diplomacy to coerce policy changes.
Infiltration of universities and research institutions to steal intellectual property or influence research agendas.
Cultivation of political elites, lobbyists, or media figures to advance a foreign state’s agenda covertly.
Use of military posturing, incursions, or proxy forces to pressure or destabilize target nations.
Cyber or physical attacks targeting critical infrastructure such as power grids, communications, or transport.
Theft or coerced transfer of sensitive technologies, trade secrets, or dual-use research.
CFIR tracks interference directed at democracies worldwide, with a primary focus on the Five Eyes intelligence alliance:
We also track interference targeting European Union member states, NATO allies, and other democracies globally.
CFIR is entirely volunteer-run. Our team includes researchers, analysts, and technologists who contribute their time and expertise because they believe that documenting foreign interference is essential to protecting democratic institutions.
Administrative costs are funded by donations from our volunteers. We accept no funding from governments, political parties, or organizations that could compromise our independence or impartiality.
There are several ways you can support our work:
For press inquiries, research collaboration, or general questions, reach out to us via LinkedIn or X.
© 2021–2026 Center for Foreign Interference Research (CFIR). All rights reserved.