BBS Faculty Member

Dr. Rubén Arcos is a senior lecturer in communication sciences at University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid, Spain, and researcher of Cyberimaginario research group. He serves as program co-chair of the Intelligence Studies Section at the International Studies Association. He is a cofounder and codirector of IntelHub—International Online Intelligence Hub, a joint initiative between the American Public University System (APUS), the University of Leicester in the UK, and URJC.

Dr. Arcos is currently a researcher and core theme leader (information and strategic communications) in the EU-HYBNET project—Empowering a Pan-European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats (a fiveyear- long project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme), and researcher of the DOMINOES (Digital Competencies Information Ecosystem) project (Erasmus+). He was appointed national representative of the NATO/STO research task group SAS-114 on Assessment and communication of uncertainty in intelligence to support decision making. He has been researcher of the Erasmus+ project CRESCEnt (Mind the gap in media coverage and strategic communication in case of security threats).

He is a member of the expert pool on information of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. His main research interests are intelligence and intelligence analysis, strategic communication, foreign information manipulation and interference, and hybrid threats.

His last book (edited with Nicole Drumhiller and Mark Phythian) is The Academic-Practitioner Divide in Intelligence Studies (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022) He is also the coeditor of The Art of Intelligence: Simulations, Exercises, and Games (2 volumes). He is a member of the editorial advisory 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).
He has served as a senior consultant for European Commission-funded projects related to the security sector in West Africa and Georgia and as a freelance contributor to Jane’s Intelligence Review.

He has more than 15 years of teaching experience in graduate and undergraduate courses in Spain and has also delivered education/training abroad either on-site and online in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Georgia, Greece, Finland, and the United States, among other countries.

Arcos served (2010-2018) as coordinating director and instructor of the first ever MA program in Intelligence analysis in Spain. He was the founder and chair of the Spanish chapter of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals – SCIP.