Rubén Arcos (ES) is Associate Professor at the School of Communication Sciences of University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid and a researcher at the Cyberimaginario research group on Communication and Digital Culture.
He is currently the Vice Chair of the Intelligence Studies Section at the International Studies Association (ISA) and has served previously as programme co-chair (2020-2023). He is also a co-founder and co-director of the International Online Intelligence Hub – IntelHub, a joint initiative between the American Public University System (APUS), the University of Leicester in the UK, and University Rey Juan Carlos. He is a member of the expert pool on information of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats – Hybrid CoE, having contributed to trend reports, with strategic analysis and with a background paper for the report “Hybrid threats: a comprehensive resilience ecosystem”. He has served as senior consultant for European Commission-funded projects related with the security sector in Georgia and The Gambia, and as a freelance contributor for Jane’s Intelligence Review.
Rubén Arcos is currently co-principal researcher and core theme leader (topic theme: information and strategic communication) of the H2020 EU-HYBNET project (Empowering a Pan-European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats), and of the Erasmus+ projects DOMINOES (Digital Competences Information Ecosystem) and INSET (Critical Studies in Intelligence, Technologies, and Security Governance). He has been appointed national representative for the NATO/STO research task group SAS-ET-FG on prediction and intelligence analysis and has served as Spanish representative in the project SAS-114 on assessment and communication of uncertainty in intelligence to support decision-making (SAS panel excellence award). He has been the coordinator of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Strategic Communication to Counter Security Threats in the Disinformation Era (awarded the International Telecommunications Union’s 2023 WSIS prize in the category of Media).
Rubén Arcos has been co-director or the 1st Conference on Exercises, Simulations, and Games for Intelligence and National Security (Georgetown University) and is co-editor (with William Lahneman) of the two volumes of The Art of Intelligence: Simulations, Exercises, and Games (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014, 2019). He has also been the co-director of the 1st StratcomES Conference – Strategic Communications in Security and Defence – and co-director of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division co-sponsored workshop “Responding to Hybrid Threats in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Region”. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and has been Deputy Editor of the International Journal of Intelligence, Security and Public Affairs (2016-2021).
In 2013 Rubén Arcos founded and served as director of the Spanish chapter of the Association of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP). He was the academic coordinator (2010-2018) and an instructor of the first-ever MA programme in Intelligence Analysis in Spain. He has teaching experience of over 15 years in undergraduate and graduate programmes and has delivered courses on intelligence and security subjects and participated in conferences and workshops, either on-site or online, in Spain and abroad, in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Greece, Georgia, Finland, Romania, The Gambia, the UK and the United States.
His most recent books are the Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security (co-edited with Irena Chiru and Cristina Ivan) and The Academic-Practitioner Divide in Intelligence Studies (co-edited with Nicole Drumhiller and Mark Phythian). His latest articles include:
- “Diversity in Intelligence: Organizations, Processes, and People”, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 35, no. 4 (2022), 607-620.
- “A Whole of Society Intelligence Approach: Critical Reassessment of the Tools and Means used to Counter Information Warfare in the Digital Age”, Intelligence and National Security 36, no. 4 (2021), 495-511.
- “EU INTCEN: A Transnational European Culture of Intelligence Analysis?”, Intelligence and National Security 35, no. 1 (2020), 72-94 (with José-Miguel Palacios).
- “The Impact of Intelligence on Decision-Making: The EU and the Arab Spring”, Intelligence and National Security 33, no. 5 (2018), 737-754 (with José-Miguel Palacios).
- “Experiencing the Art of Intelligence: Using Simulations/Gaming for Teaching Intelligence and Developing Analysis and Production Skills”, Intelligence and National Security 32, no. 7 (2017), 972-985.