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- Newish Foreign Policy Vibes in Ulaanbaatar
- New to Ulaanbaatar April 2026
- Uchral Cabinet
- Is Mongolia not Backsliding?
- Podcast: The Great State Mural – Mongolia Portrayed
- Mining and Magnetism: The Repulsion Effect
- What Does the Rusal-Rio Case Actually Mean For Mongolia?
- Mongolia Focus in Review 2025
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Author Archives: JDierkes
Guest Post: Five Reasons Why Democracy in Mongolia is Working
By Daniel Schmücking and Adiyasuren J Mongolia is hailed as an ‘oasis of democracy’, as a shining example of democratic development, and as a model for other post-communist countries especially the Central Asian nations to strive to. Although, many challenges such … Continue reading
Pedagogical Reflections: Role Playing and Cases
By Julian Dierkes Beyond my research on Mongolia, I also seek out opportunities for teaching and other kinds of engagement. Overall, Mongolian teaching methods I have observed remain fairly traditional, that is a respected instructor lecturing a large audience of … Continue reading
Change in Countryside – October 2017
By Julian Dierkes This is Post #500 for our Blog! What a milestone, we’ll have to commemorate our achievement soon. For some years, I have now taken notes about visible changes in Ulaanbaatar on my periodic visits. This year, I’ve … Continue reading
Disappointed by the Khurelsukh Cabinet
By Julian Dierkes My dominant view of developments in Mongolia is, “If only…”. The economic, political and social development promise is there, yet its fulfillment is always one or two good decisions away. In my view, Khurelsukh’s cabinet unfortunately signals … Continue reading
Posted in Government, Judiciary, Mongolian People's Party, Politics, Public Service
Tagged Julian Dierkes
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Khurelsukh Cabinet
By J Mendee & Julian Dierkes It has been an odd development that the MPP government led by Prime Minister J Erdenebat fell, even though the MPP still has its super-majority in parliament. Ultimately, this has been fallout from M … Continue reading
Guest Post: Resource Governance Index Points to SOEs as Key Reform Target
By N Dorjdari NRGI’s Resource Governance Index measures good governance in the extractives sectors of 81 countries. This year, Mongolia’s mining sector ranked 15th out of 89 assessed extractive sectors, with an overall score of 64 out of 100 points—a … Continue reading
Prime Minister-in-spe Khurelsukh
U Khurelsukh will be elected prime minister. His term will be focused on domestic politics. Within the constraints of the IMF agreement, Khurelsukh will try to dampen perceptions of cutbacks in state benefits, while hoping for a continuation (or resumption, given the past month) of the rise of copper prices to bring revenues to the government that might increase his ability to shape policy more actively.
Who is Khurelsukh? Continue reading
Norwegian Wealth
By Julian Dierkes One of my all-time favourite authors is 村上春樹. He rose to fame initially with his book, Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森). That was a reference to a Beatles song, of course. And thus the title of this post, combining literature, … Continue reading
Posted in Corruption, Democracy, Development, EITI, Governance, Mining, Mining Governance, Policy, Politics, Public Policy, Public Service, Sovereign Wealth Fund
Tagged Julian Dierkes
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How We Covered the Presidential Election
By Julian Dierkes It’s been an exhausting but exhilarating summer, Mongolia’s election season. I tried – together with a number of students – to provide observations, interpretations and analyses of the campaigns and both rounds of voting. I reported on … Continue reading
Mongolian Presence in Germany
By Julian Dierkes I spent the past year on a research leave from the University of British Columbia in Berlin, Germany, at the Free University’s Graduate School of East Asian Studies. I found Mongolia to be much more visible in … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, Cinema, Curios, Diaspora, Germany, Mongolian Diaspora, Pop Culture
Tagged Julian Dierkes
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Guest Post: Beyond the Ballot – Mongolia’s General Election Commission
By Jessica Keegan Mongolia’s General Election Commission (GEC) has been in existence since 1992 and is responsible for administering free, fair and credible elections. As with any young democracy, the institution has at times struggled to keep up with Mongolia’s … Continue reading
Guest Post: Missing at the Kazakh Expo Party
By Dénes Jäger The Vatican, Yemen, Antigua and Barbuda are only three of over 100 states participating in this year‘s Expo in Astana Kazakhstan. Even though the concept of an international exposition seems to be a little outdated in a … Continue reading
Posted in Dénes Jäger, Foreign Policy, Kazakhstan
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6-Year Anniversary and Welcome Marissa Smith
By Julian Dierkes Unbelievable! We’ve been blogging here for six years now! That means that almost 100,000 users (93,500) have looked at over of a quarter of a million of posts (277,000). They’ve selected among over 480 posts. The most … Continue reading
Posted in Research on Mongolia, Social Media
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Battulga, What Kind of President?
By Julian Dierkes Kh Battulga has been elected president. That means the dominance of the president’s office by the DP will continue another four years past Ts Elbegdorj’s two terms. But what kind of president will Battulga be? While the … Continue reading
Posted in Constitution, Corruption, Democracy, Governance, JD Democratization, Party Politics, Politics, Presidential 2017
Tagged Julian Dierkes
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Guest Post: Not Hans and George but Battulga?
By Dénes Jäger In Turkish media the result of the Mongolian presidential elections didn’t really attract much attention. Most outlets only published a footnote, while some, interestingly, depicted Battulga as being a candidate close to Vladimir Putin. Naturally, Turkey currently … Continue reading
Posted in Bilateral Aid, Dénes Jäger, Foreign Policy, Turkey
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