Dr. Rubén Arcos is an Associate Professor [Profesor Titular] at the School of Communication Sciences of University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid, Spain, and a researcher at the Cyberimaginario research group on Communication and Digital Culture. He is the Academic Director of the Office of International Programs.
Arcos is a Visiting Professor at the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department of the College of Europe in Bruges and at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE).
He is faculty of the PhD program in international security and of the postgraduate course of specialist in intelligence at the Institute General Gutiérrez Mellado of the National Distance Learning University of Spain (UNED)
He currently serves as Chair of the Intelligence Studies Section at the International Studies Association (ISA).
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+ project POWER, and has contributed similarly before to the 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-189 on anticipatory intelligence for superior decision making and has served as Spanish representative in the project SAS-ET-FG on prediction and intelligence analysis and in the project SAS-114 on assessment and communication of uncertainty in intelligence to support decision-making (SAS panel excellence award).
He has served as senior consultant for European Commission-funded projects related to the security sector in Georgia and The Gambia, and as a freelance contributor for Jane’s Intelligence Review.
His main research interests are intelligence and security, strategic communication, hybrid threats, disinformation and foreign interference.
His most recent books are the Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security (2024) and The Academic-Practitioner Divide in Intelligence Studies (2022). He is also the co-editor (with William Lahneman) of the two volumes of The Art of Intelligence: Simulations, Exercises, and Games (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014, 2019) and editor (with Randy Pherson) of the volume Intelligence Communication in the Digital Era (Palgrave, 2015).
He is an editor of the journal Applied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance, and serves in the editorial advisory board of different journals, including the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Romanian Intelligence Studies Review, the Journal of Applied Operational Intelligence, and Revista Internacional de Estudios sobre Terrorismo (Spanish). He has been Deputy Editor of the International Journal of Intelligence, Security and Public Affairs (2016-2021).
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication, a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities (Philosophy track) and a PhD in the social and cultural construction of Europe.
