Author Archives: JDierkes

About JDierkes

Research on Mongolia for over 20 years, particular focus on mining policy and democratization. Princeton-trained sociologist. Dean, School of Social Sciences, Univ of Mannheim.

World Class Oyu Tolgoi Safety

Posted on April 14, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes {Disclosure: I was invited to visit Oyu Tolgoi by the company and enjoyed their hospitality.} In press releases, but also media accounts, Oyu Tolgoi is often described as a “world-class” deposit. To the extent that this meant … Continue reading →

Posted in Gobi, Oyu Tolgoi | Tagged | Leave a comment

Toward a Transition Away from Coal

Posted on April 3, 2019 by JDierkes

By Sandeep Pai and Julian Dierkes In November 2018, Tsenguun T and Aldarsaikhan T wrote a guest post describing the Mongolian podcast scene. Since then, more podcasts have sprung up, for example, recent guest post co-author Boldsaikhan S is involved … Continue reading →

Posted in Air Pollution, China, Climate Change, Development, Diversification, Energy, Foreign Investment, Infrastructure, Podcast, Policy, Policy, Renewables, Sandeep Pai, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Beginning of the End of Democracy?

Posted on March 27, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes and Boldsaikhan Sambuu Mongolians have voiced strong reactions to the proposal and the passage of a series of amendments to the laws governing the appointment and dismissal of judges, the Prosecutor General, and the Head of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Boldsaikhan Sambuu, Corruption, Governance, JD Democratization, Judiciary, Law, Public Service | Leave a comment

Guest Post: China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Posted on March 12, 2019 by JDierkes

By Connor Judge and Sanchir Jargalsaikhan Myriad conferences, expos, forums and articles have recently elevated the profile of acronyms “OBOR” and “BRI” to a par with “blockchain,” the latter being a ground-breaking technology that few fully understand, but which has … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Connor Judge, Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, International Relations, Mongolia and ..., Policy, Russia, Sanchir Jargalsaikhan, SCO | Leave a comment

Challenges Arising from Growing National Herd

Posted on February 27, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes On an August 2018 trip to Western Mongolia, I heard a lot of countryside reports that the value of animal products, especially meat, is rapidly declining, exacerbating poverty, unemployment, migration to towns and cities, etc. When you … Continue reading →

Posted in Countryside, Diversification, Flooding, Grassland, Health, Infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Hip Hop in Politics

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JDierkes

By Paweł Szczap With hip-hop culture being often highly saturated with political and social commentaries, so far I have mostly concentrated on the presence of nationalist discourse within the Mongolian hip-hop scene. There are loads of material for research and … Continue reading →

Posted in Ikh Khural 2016, Music, Music, Party Politics, Paweł Szczap, Politics, Pop Culture, Presidential 2017, Ulaanbaatar, Youth | Leave a comment

From Transparency to a Participatory Revolution

Posted on January 15, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes and Damdinnyam G [Mongolian Version: “МОНГОЛЧУУД: Ил тод байдлаас зѳв оролцооны хувьсгал руу…“] Even by the standards of Mongolian politics, the last two months have been eventful. Scandals, no confidence votes, demonstrations… one might think it’s an … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Damdinnyam Gongor, Law, Politics, Public Opinion, Social Change, Social Movements, Taxes | Tagged | 2 Comments

Guest Post: Connecting Mongols Between Mongolia and China Through Hip Hop

Posted on January 14, 2019 by JDierkes

By Thalea Stokes The Project My time in Mongolia and China has been towards the aim of coming to a deeper understanding of Mongolian hip hop culture in both nations, and how those cultures interact, intertwine, and inform each other. … Continue reading →

Posted in Mongolians in China, Music, Nationalism, Pop Culture, Research on Mongolia, Social Change, Society and Culture, Thalea Stokes | Leave a comment

Genuine Protests or Political Grandstanding

Posted on January 9, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes A group of MPs is clearly trying to mobilize against M Enkhbold through the organization of public protests. We saw such protests at the ever end of 2018, but they have been announced for January 10 as … Continue reading →

Posted in Demonstrations, JD Democratization, Politics, Public Opinion, Social Change, Social Movements | Tagged | Leave a comment

Embassies in Ulaanbaatar on Social Media

Posted on January 7, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes A recent post about the Twitter accounts of foreign embassies in Ulaanbaatar proved to be more popular than I had anticipated, so I’ll turn that into a blog post below. As far as I can tell, nine … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Canada, Digital Diplomacy, EU, Foreign Policy, Germany, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and ..., Russia, Turkey, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

Blogging in 2018

Posted on January 1, 2019 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Mongolia Focus is in its 8th year of existence. We’ve continued to blog pretty steadily in 2018 with a total of 65 new posts this past year. Since July 2011, we’ve published at least one post every … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflection, Research on Mongolia, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

New to Ulaanbaatar December 2018

Posted on December 14, 2018 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes I’ve been keeping a list of things that are arriving to/disappearing from central Ulaanbaatar: August 2018 | October 2017 | June 2017 | May 2016 | December 2015 | May 2015 | May 2014 | October 2013 | October 2011. More informal versions of these observations also appear in the /ulaanbaatar/change/ … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Curios, Ulaanbaatar | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Political Bowl of Цуйван

Posted on December 11, 2018 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Clearly, the second half of November into December 2018 has been an exciting time for observers of Mongolian politics. When the SME Fund scandal started gathering protest online, I was about to by an airplane ticket to … Continue reading →

Posted in Democratic Party, Ikh Khural 2020, Mongolian People's Party, National Labor Party, Party Politics, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Cabinet Reshuffle: Dambadorj for Foreign Education Minister

Posted on November 30, 2018 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes With all the scandals surrounding corruption in the past month and the no-confidence vote against PM Khurelsukh failing, it’s time for a re-imagining of a previous post. I’m expanding my campaign from trying to become the foreign … Continue reading →

Posted in Curios, Humor | Tagged | Leave a comment

Camping Nomads

Posted on November 25, 2018 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Historically, Mongolians are a nation of “campers”. While perhaps less than a third of them still are mobile pastoralists, and even they are less mobile than they once were, nomadism and the movable home still play large … Continue reading →

Posted in Countryside, Curios, Social Change, Tourism | Tagged | Leave a comment