Arelena Shala

Arelena Shala, from Prizren, Kosovo, is pursuing a Master's in International degree with a focus on international security as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. She comes to Stanford after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, the first in her country. Her background is in geospatial science and Arabic language studies. During her undergraduate research, Arelena explored commercial-based methods of three-dimensional reconstruction of environments to improve military intelligence capabilities. Her current research interest is the intersection of geospatial science and international security, mainly the use of open-source imagery intelligence as a method of verification of nuclear-nonproliferation and promotion of transparency in global security. Her research resulted in the identification of a new nuclear-related facility in Iran and was published in Janes Intelligence Review. Arelena is currently a research assistant for LTG(R) H. R. McMaster at the Hoover Institution, and after graduation, she will serve as a military intelligence officer in the Kosovo Army. In her free time, Arelena enjoys learning about different cultures and languages through travel. Besides her native Albanian, Arelena is conversant in Spanish, Turkish, and Arabic.