The UK’s new inquiry into foreign financial interference reflects a growing anxiety across democratic systems. The threat isn’t tanks or troops. It’s money flows, digital influence, and opaque networks that operate below public visibility. The challenge is structural. Democracies depend on openness, but openness creates vulnerabilities. Closing those gaps requires surveillance, regulation, and suspicion — tools that democracies are historically uncomfortable using against themselves. That tension has no clean resolution. Investigate too aggressively, and you risk politicizing national security. Investigate too weakly, and interference becomes normalized. Either way, trust erodes. The deeper question isn’t whether foreign influence exists. It’s whether democratic systems can defend themselves without becoming less democratic in the process. #UKPolitics #Democracy #NationalSecurity #PoliticalSystems