Covert Power and Accountability

National Security Intelligence

AI Governance

Secrecy and Democracy

Jason Ross Arnold studies power that operates in the dark — the intelligence agencies, covert operations, foreign influence campaigns, and secrecy regimes that shape American politics while resisting democratic oversight. A Professor and Chair of Political Science at VCU, he combines archival research with institutional and policy analysis, tracing how states acquire, conceal, and sometimes abuse covert authority. His more recent work extends these questions into artificial intelligence: how AI reshapes national security, what governance frameworks can constrain high-risk systems, and whether democratic accountability mechanisms are adequate to the challenge.

Education

• Ph.D., Political Science, University of Minnesota
• M.A., Political Science, University of Minnesota
• M.S., Political Science, University of Oregon
• B.A., Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago

Research Interests

• Covert power and democratic accountability
• Intelligence agencies, foreign influence, and American politics
• AI governance and national security

Select Publications

• Uncertain Threats: The FBI, the New Left, and Cold War Intelligence (Available for free to VCU community members)
• High-Risk AI Models Need Military-Grade Security, War on the Rocks
• Superintelligence Deterrence Has an Observability Problem, AI Frontiers
• Foreign Communist Involvement in El Salvador's War: The White Paper Reconsidered, Journal of Cold War Studies [forthcoming]
• Source Alerts Can Reduce the Harms of Foreign Disinformation (with Alexandra Reckendorf and Amanda Wintersieck), Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
• Whistleblowers, Leakers, and Their Networks: From Snowden to Samizdat, Rowman & Littlefield (Security and Professional Intelligence Education Series)
• Secrecy in the Sunshine Era: The Promise and Failures of U.S. Open Government Laws, University Press of Kansas

Affiliations

• VCU Department of Computer Science affiliated faculty member
• VCU Cybersecurity Center faculty fellow

Courses

• A.I. Governance and Ethics
• Secrecy, Surveillance, Spies, and Lies
• Senior Seminar

Awards

• VCU Transformative Learning Fund: VIP Awards, 2023
• VCU Global Education Office Partnership Award, 2023
• VCU CHS Seed Award, 2019