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.

Guest Post: The Long Journey – Towards a Broadcasting Law in Mongolia

Posted on March 29, 2017 by JDierkes

By Toby Mendel Broadcasting laws are important Most democracies, and quite a few non-democracies, have adopted broadcasting laws. At their best, these laws can promote a number of important social and human rights objectives. They can establish independent bodies to regulate … Continue reading →

Posted in Law, Media and Press, Public Policy, Social Media, Society and Culture, Toby Mendel | 6 Comments

Funny Thing Happened Last Week: John Oliver, Dalai Lama, Mongolia

Posted on March 15, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes One of the reasons I encourage graduate students to be strategic about communicating their research results is that you never know when and on what topic the public comes knocking on your door. Sometimes the public comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Curios, Dalai Lama, Health, Media and Press, Pop Culture, Social Issues, Social Media, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

PS: Constitutional Reform & Double Deel

Posted on March 9, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Constitutional revision remains under consideration in Mongolia. If the MPP wins the presidential election in June 2017, there may be less pressure toward a revision of the relative power of president and parliament (most recent discussions in … Continue reading →

Posted in Constitution, Democracy, Germany, Governance | Tagged | 4 Comments

Addendum: Paying Bribes

Posted on March 8, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes I recently wrote that year-over-year changes in the Corruption Perception Index for Mongolia didn’t mean much, and also tried to benchmark corruption in Mongolia against post-state socialist countries, resource economies and democracies. Now, Transparency International offers some … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Global Indices | Tagged | 2 Comments

Benchmarking Corruption

Posted on March 1, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes In January, Transparency International released the most recent instalment of its corruption perception index. I’ve already commented that Mongolia’s drop in the CPI rankings was not very meaningful. The more I’ve looked at the CPI over the years, … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Civil Society, Corruption, Global Indices, Mongolia and ... | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Label of Erdenet ‘Nationalization’ Misleading

Posted on February 18, 2017 by JDierkes

By Marissa Smith Many Fear Mongolian Government Decision Heralds Another Privatization, Securing of the Status Quo Possible Last week during an extra session after the final day of its fall session, Mongolia’s Parliament voted that the state acquire the share … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Corruption, Erdenet, Marissa Smith, Mining, Mining Governance, Policy | 22 Comments

Drop in 2016 Corruption Perception Index Score Not Very Meaningful

Posted on January 25, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes As readers of the blog know, I have developed an interest on Mongolia’s position on various global rankings over the years. I have written about indices in methodological terms as well as to try to understand Mongolia’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Global Indices | Tagged | Leave a comment

International Relations in the Trump Era

Posted on January 19, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes As someone who thinks and writes about political risk regarding Mongolia, my focus is on domestic politics more than on international relations. Yet, with Donald Trump becoming U.S.-president, I have to add a fairly random element to … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Foreign Policy, International Relations, Mongolia and ..., Nationalism, North Korea, Presidential 2017, Russia, UN, United States | Tagged | 2 Comments

Thoughts and Comments on Organic Mongolia

Posted on January 11, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Early in December a bit of inspiration struck after I had read an ADB blog post and received a lot of responses to a tweet about that post. I wondered aloud whether it would be possible for … Continue reading →

Posted in Countryside, Development, Environment, Grassland, Infrastructure, Policy, Public Policy, Regulation, Tourism | Tagged | 3 Comments

Blogging in 2016

Posted on January 4, 2017 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes In the sixth calendar year of the existence of this blog, we were once again very happy to find a significant number of readers. In the course of the year, we wrote 68 new posts. Highlights of … Continue reading →

Posted in Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bullied by China over Visit by the Dalai Lama

Posted on December 21, 2016 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes [With thanks to Bulgan B for her help in understanding the interview and subsequent statements.] Late in November, His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia. This was the first visit since 2011. Previous visits occurred in 2006 … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Dalai Lama, Foreign Policy, Religion | Tagged | 1 Comment

What if Mongolia Went All-Organic?

Posted on December 9, 2016 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes I recently re-tweeted an ADB tweet about one of their blog posts, “The Foreseeable Future of Mongolia’s Agriculture” So important to note that “#Mongolia’s agriculture […] is organic, less polluted” thus huge, high-value potential in East Asia.#yummy … Continue reading →

Posted in Cashmere, Countryside, Development, Environment, Grassland, Infrastructure, Policy, Policy, Public Policy, Regulation, Tourism | Tagged | 4 Comments

Impacts of International Exchanges

Posted on December 4, 2016 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes [With thanks to CIRDI’s Marie-Luise Ermisch for contributing some of these.] During the first workshop we co-organized with the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Cooperation Fund, a number of impacts arose in an incidental manner, but … Continue reading →

Posted in CIRDI, Development, International Agreements, Kyrgyz Republic, Mining Governance | Tagged | Leave a comment

More on Re-Forming the DP

Posted on December 1, 2016 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes I recently started thinking about the future of the DP within Mongolian democracy. In that first post, I wrote about DP party unity and a rejuvenation of DP leaders. I want to continue that consideration here, particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Democracy, Democratic Party, Ikh Khural 2016, JD Democratization, Politics, Presidential 2017, Public Policy, Public Service | Tagged | Leave a comment

Kyrgyzstan: An Excursion

Posted on November 23, 2016 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes I have been traveling very regularly to Mongolia for over 10 years now. At the same time, I also spend a lot of time in Japan and in Europe, but it is easy to disassociate those latter … Continue reading →

Posted in Curios, Kyrgyz Republic | Tagged | Leave a comment