Ruben Arcos

Rubén Arcos is a Visiting Professor at the School of Management, Preparedness and Resilience Research Platform, of the University of Vaasa.

Dr. Arcos is an Associate Professor (Profesor Titular de Universidad) at the School of Communication Sciences of University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid, Spain, and a senior researcher at the Research group in Digital Communication and Culture Ciberimaginario. He is the Academic Director of the Office of International Programs.

Arcos is also a Visiting Professor of European Intelligence Analysis at the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department of the College of Europe in Bruges.

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). Arcos also serves as visiting lecturer at the Master of Business Intelligence of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE).

Arcos is currently the elected Chair of the Intelligence Studies Section at the International Studies Association (ISA).

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 s currently co-principal researcher of the project POWER (Erasmus+) on “Prevention Of Weaponization and Enhancing Resilience against security-related disinformation on clean energy” and has served previously as 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-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).

His main research interests are intelligence and security, anticipatory and strategic communication, hybrid threats, disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference. prepardeness and resilience.

He is an editor of the journal Applied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance (NASK, Poland), 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 has been a 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). 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”.

In 2013 Rubén Arcos founded and served as director of the Spanish chapter of the Association of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication, a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities and a PhD in the social and cultural construction of Europe. 


Authored/Edited Books

• Arcos, Rubén, Irena Chiru, and Cristina Ivan. Eds. Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security. 2024 https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Disinformation-and-National-Security/Arcos-Chiru-Ivan/p/book/9781032040509
• Arcos, Rubén; Drumhiller, Nicole K. and Mark Phythian. Eds. The Academic-Practitioner Divide in Intelligence Studies. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, April 2022. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/academicpractitioner-divide-in-intelligence-studies-9781538196175/
• Arcos, Rubén and William J. Lahneman. Eds. The Art of Intelligence: More Simulations, Exercises, and Games. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/art-of-intelligence-9781538123461/
• Arcos, Rubén and Randolph H. Pherson. Eds. Intelligence Communication in the Digital Era: Transforming Security, Defence and Business. Basingstoke England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137523792
• Lahneman, William J. and Rubén Arcos Martín.  Eds. The Art of Intelligence: Simulations, Exercises, and Games. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/art-of-intelligence-9781442228962/
• Arcos Martín, Rubén. La Lógica De La Excepción Cultural: Entre La Geoeconomía Y La Diversidad Cultural. 1st ed. Madrid: Cátedra, 2010. https://www.catedra.com/libro/signo-e-imagen/la-logica-de-la-excepcion-cultural-ruben-arcos-9788437626369/