Category Archives: Author

Guest Post: Four Things We Learned from Young Voters’ Survey

Posted on June 1, 2020 by JDierkes

By BOLDSAIKHAN Sambuu Youth abstention is fast becoming a hot topic in Mongolia as the parliamentary elections come right around the corner. This is partly because, in this year’s elections, both major and new parties, such as the National Labor … Continue reading →

Posted in Boldsaikhan Sambuu, Elections, Ikh Khural 2016, Ikh Khural 2020, Party Politics, Younger Mongolians, Youth | Leave a comment

The Demos Party: Women Candidates, Multi-Ethnic Mongolia, and Third Party Rural Strategy

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Marissa Smith

By Marissa J. Smith Among the four independent parties we are following, the Demos (ЗОН) Party has an interesting mix of most sophisticated web presence (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, website, and even Wikipedia page!) and its fielding of candidates in every … Continue reading →

Posted in Countryside, Democracy, Elections, Ethnic Groups, Gender, Geography, Ikh Khural 2020, Marissa Smith, Party Politics, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Covering 2020 Election

Posted on May 24, 2020 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes Mongolia Focus is facing a challenge! In all likelihood, due to COVID-19, none of our core team will be able to travel to Mongolia for the campaign, nor for the election itself. Help us, dear readers, by … Continue reading →

Posted in Author, City Planning, Democracy, eDemocracy, Elections, Foreign Policy, Ikh Khural 2020, Media and Press, Party Politics, Policy, Policy, Politics, Populism, Public Policy | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Dragged into a Power Struggle: Mongolia caught between the Dalai Lama and Beijing

Posted on May 18, 2020 by JDierkes

By Manlai N On January 28th 2020, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala, India has announced that the long-awaited Tibetan Policy and Support Act was passed in the US House of Representatives. The bill was sponsored by Senator James … Continue reading →

Posted in Buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, History, Manlai Nyamdorj, Religion, Social Issues, Society and Culture, Tibet | Leave a comment

Historical Memories: Contemporary Perspectives on Choibalsan

Posted on May 14, 2020 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes, Kenny Linden and Marissa Smith In a series of tweets Kenny Linden pointed to a puzzle that many of us who regularly interact with contemporary Mongolia, namely what would be termed Vergangenheitsbewältigung in German (coming to terms … Continue reading →

Posted in Dissertation Ideas, History, Kenneth Linden, Research on Mongolia, Social Issues | Tagged | 1 Comment

Guest Post: Development Challenge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Mongolia

Posted on April 9, 2020 by JDierkes

By Naranzul B Changes in Mongolia’s political and economic systems have exacerbated income and social inequality. This, in turn, has excluded a large percentage of the population from benefiting from economic growth. One of the ways out of this situation, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Employment, Naranzul Bayasgalan, Policy, Vocational | Leave a comment

Guest Post: A BIT of Project Finance Arbitrage in Mongolia

Posted on April 1, 2020 by JDierkes

By Kinnari Bhatt As Jennifer Lander observed last week, RIO is getting out the big guns. My new book – Concessionaires, Financiers and Communities: Implementing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Land in Transnational Development Projects, shows how investors like RIO use … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Kinnari Bhatt, Law, Mining, Mining Governance, Mongolia and ..., Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Research on Mongolia, Taxes | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Personal Experience of National Quarantine during COVID 19

Posted on March 26, 2020 by JDierkes

By Zorigtkhuu B Although there were some strict measures by the government to combat the deadly virus in Mongolia, it had been so nice to come back to my home country after a few years of being away. The capital … Continue reading →

Posted in Elections, Health, Law, Media and Press, Politics, Social Issues, Zorigtkhuu Bat-Erdene | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Investor-State Arbitration and Mongolia’s Rapidly Shrinking Policy Space

Posted on March 11, 2020 by JDierkes

By Jennifer Lander On the 20th of February, Rio Tinto initiated arbitration proceedings against the Government of Mongolia at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) through Oyu Tolgoi LLC. The escalation of the dispute over the alleged … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Jennifer Lander, Law, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Taxes, Trade | Leave a comment

Constitutional Reforms and Political Party Creation

Posted on February 9, 2020 by JDierkes

By Julian Dierkes and Gerelt-Od Erdenebileg The Mongolian Parliament has passed a number of constitutional amendments on November 14, 2019. Elements of this constitutional reform had been discussed by many political parties and politicians for the last twenty years. Among … Continue reading →

Posted in Constitution, Democracy, Elections, Gerelt-Od Erdenebileg, Governance, JD Democratization, Party Politics, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fascist Symbolism in Mongolia

Posted on January 20, 2020 by JDierkes

By Niels Hegewisch and Julian Dierkes Recent attention to ethno-rock sensation The Hu has revived concerns about the (seeming) use of fascist iconography in Mongolian politics. While fascist symbols are immediately distasteful to Western observers, in Asia such symbols need … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Music, Nationalism, Niels Hegewisch, Politics, Pop Culture, Populism, Protest, Social Issues, Society and Culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Gender Mainstreaming in Public Administration

Posted on January 8, 2020 by JDierkes

By Oyuntuya Shagdarsuren At a glance, Mongolia may seem like a ‘paradise for men’ given the high status of men or a ‘paradise for women’ given the country’s high rankings on human development indices. Yet, the gender equality situation remains … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Oyuntuya Shagdarsuren, Public Policy, Public Service, Social Change, Social Issues | Leave a comment

Back to the 2008 Future in Voting?

Posted on December 17, 2019 by JDierkes

By Enkhtsetseg D and Julian Dierkes After toying with the idea of a mixed electoral system, in which 50 seats were to be distributed based on the FPTP system and 26 seats to be distributed proportionally from an open party … Continue reading →

Posted in Elections, Enkhtsetseg Dagva, Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Book Review S Ruhlmann “Inviting Happiness: Food Sharing in Post-Communist Mongolia”

Posted on October 18, 2019 by JDierkes

By Jade Marie Richards Sandrine Ruhlmann. 2019. Inviting Happiness: Food Sharing in Post-Communist Mongolia. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 288pp. ISBN 978-90-04-41063-3 So much recent work in the anthropology of Mongolia focuses on broad scale politico-economic transformation, urbanisation or the divisive mining … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Change, Countryside, Food, Jade Marie Richards, Publications, Research on Mongolia, Reviews | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Doping in Mongolian Wrestling

Posted on September 17, 2019 by JDierkes

By Zorigtkhuu B Last year, I wrote a brief blog post about some of the political issues surrounding Mongolian wrestling. For example, military titles, associational rivalry, and doping, etc. This year’s wrestling tournament has become a hot topic for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Naadam, Wrestling, Zorigtkhuu Bat-Erdene | Leave a comment