This Month in Mongolian Studies

ACMS Library Fellowship 2012

2011-12-06T04:26:00.000-08:00

American Center for Mongolian Studies is pleased to announce the second year of the ACMS Library Fellowship. This fellowship supports US advanced graduate students, faculty members, or professionals in library and information sciences from colleges and universities to conduct short-term library development projects and/or research in Mongolia for a period of up to 12 weeks between May and October 2012. The ACMS Library Fellowship program is intended to help support the development of the ACMS research library and build stronger connections among local library partners through specific defined projects designed to enhance collection content, resource accessibility, and training.

Fellows are hosted by the ACMS and should propose projects that have measurable positive outcomes for the scholarly community served by the ACMS. Project proposals with similar outcomes and impacts on local partner libraries are also especially encouraged. Fellows spend a minimum of 4 weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks onsite in Mongolia at the ACMS library. Projects must begin after May 1, 2012 and end no later than September 30, 2012. Prior experience working in Mongolia is not a requirement. Due to conditions set by the funding agency only US citizens are eligible to apply to this program.

Deadline to submit application: February 15, 2012.

More information on how to apply at: www.mongoliacenter.org/librarian

The fellowship is supported with funding from the US State Department Education and Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Council of American Oversees Research Centers.

ACMS Mongolian Visiting Scholar Program 2012

2011-12-06T04:21:00.000-08:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is pleased to announce the second year of the ACMS Mongolian Visiting Scholar Program. The Visiting Scholar Program provides funding support for 3-12 week short-term visits by Mongolian scholars to US universities and academic research centers to work with US based counterparts on collaborative projects and public outreach activities. Project proposals in all academic fields are eligible, and small colleges and universities are especially encouraged to apply.

Applications for the program must be submitted by a US host institution representative on behalf of an invited Mongolian scholar. Visits to the US must begin between September 1 and December 31, 2012. This program is intended to fund non-degree, scholarly exchange activities.

Deadline to submit application: February 15, 2012.

More information about how to apply at: www.mongoliacenter.org/exchange.

The Program is supported by the US State Department Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau (ECA) and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.

ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program 2012

2011-12-06T04:17:00.000-08:00

The ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program was initiated in 2006 to foster a new generation of Mongolian Studies scholars by creating an opportunity for field studies early in the careers of both US and Mongolian scholars. During the 2012 program, the ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program is open to research proposals from advanced undergraduate to post-doctoral US scholars, including university and college faculty, for the purposes of conducting short-term field research projects in Mongolia between May and October 2012.

Applicants must be US citizens currently enrolled full-time (students) or employed at least part-time (post-docs and faculty) at a university or college. Students graduating in Spring 2012 are eligible for the program. Undergraduate applicants must have at least third year standing in their program, while graduate applicants can be at a masters, pre-dissertation, or doctoral candidacy level. Post-doctoral scholars and faculty must regularly teach at least one course at a US university or college to be eligible. The program priority for post-doctoral scholars and faculty is to support individuals from non-research intensive universities and colleges, especially those who are helping guide student research projects or who can show how the fellowship experience will enhance their teaching and outreach.

Joint applications submitted by a student and post-doctoral scholar or faculty member are highly encouraged. Joint applicants must submit individual applications, but the applications will be evaluated both individually and jointly during the review process. Joint applications are not required, and individual applications are welcome. Prior research or study experience in Mongolia is not required to apply.

Deadline for submitting applications: February 15, 2012.

More information about how to apply at: www.mongoliacenter.org/field.

The ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program is funded by a grant from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) and US Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA).

Job Opening - ACMS Resident Director

2011-07-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is seeking a Resident Director for its Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia office. The ACMS is a non-profit, non-governmental educational organization that supports the development of Mongolian Studies and academic exchanges with Inner Asia. The ACMS is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) with funding from the US government, private foundations and member institutions and individuals. For more information on the ACMS, please visit www.mongoliacenter.org. The ACMS defines Mongolian Studies to include all academic fields as they relate to Mongolia and the Inner Asian region.

To see the full announcement visit: www.mongoliacenter.org/director.

Online Mongolian Course Fall 2011

2011-05-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies is pleased to announce the fall semester of "Mon 101: Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture", an online Mongolian course being offered at University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) from August 29 to December 17, 2011. The course is co-organized by UMA and ACMS. The course is open to anyone (you do not need to be a student at UMA to participate), and it is the first semester in a two semester offering of beginner Mongolian.

More information about the course is available at: www.mongoliacenter.org/mon101.

ACMS Panel at the NAMBC Meeting April 28, Washington DC

2011-04-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

9:00 AM - 12noon – “Common Ground: The Intersection of Mining and Cultural Heritage in Mongolia,”

Location: Phoenix Park Hotel Ballroom, Lobby Level, on Capitol Hill at 520 North Capitol Street, NW near Union Station

Moderator: Charles Krusekopf, Ph.D., Executive Director, American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)

Uranchimeg Tsultem, Ph.D., Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Art History and Adviser to the Mongolian President for Cultural Heritage Issues – Art and Landscape in Mongolia
Jeffrey Altschul, Ph.D., President, SRI Foundation/Chairman, Statistical Research, Inc – Protecting the Past, Preserving the Present: The Oyu Tolgoi Cultural Heritage Program
Paula DePriest, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution – Gold Fever in the Mongolian Taiga
William Fitzhugh, Ph.D., Director, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution –Mongolia's Archaeological Treasures: Preserving the Past for the Future
Robin Charpentier, ACMS Resident Director – Improving Mongolian Cultural Relations at the Mining and Cultural Heritage Interstices

ACMS Annual Membership Meeting

2011-04-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

April 28th, 2011, 5pm-7:30pm, Washington, DC

The ACMS will hold its annual membership meeting in the top floor conference room of the Rome Building at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) from 5-7:30pm. The meeting will include an overview of the ACMS's activities over the year, a keynote lecture, and reception with a cultural program. Dr. Uranchimeg Tsultem, Lecturer, UC-Berkeley and Adviser to the Mongolian President for Cultural Heritage issues, will give the keynote address on preserving Mongolian cultural heritage. This event is free and open to all ACMS members and the general public. Contact: info@mongoliacenter.org.

New Online Mongolian Course Spring 2011

2010-12-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is pleased to announce the second semester of an online Mongolian course being offered at University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) from January 10 to May 7, 2011. The course is co-organized by UMA and ACMS. The course is open to anyone (you do not need to be a student at UMA to participate), and it is the second semester in a two semester offering of beginner Mongolian.

Course title: MON 102E - Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture

Three Credits, Three Instructors, No Textbook;

One prerequisite (ability to read and write Mongolian Cyrillic);

Participation in MON 101E NOT required;

Taught totally online;

Highly interactive weekly assignments;

No required times for student meetings;

More information at: www.mongoliacenter.org

Please call 1-800-868-7000 and speak with Heidi or Lisa.

ACMS Now Accepting Fellowship Applications for 2011

2010-11-02T10:08:00.001-07:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies is pleased to announce its fellowship programs for 2011. Five programs offer up to 16 fellowship opportunities for students, faculty, and professional librarians. The application deadline for all of these programs is February 15, 2011. For more information visit: www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship or Contact: info@mongoliacenter.org with questions.

ACMS Annual Meeting - Call for Posters

2010-01-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 1, 2010
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is organizing a Mongolian Studies poster session and reception to be held on Friday, March 26, 2010 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel (1201 Market Street Philadelphia, PA), in Grand Ballroom Salon G, in conjunction with the ACMS' Annual Meeting.

Posters on any topic related to Mongolia, the Mongolian people or historical subjects related to the Mongols are welcome. Poster presenters are required to appear at the meeting to discuss their work. Posters may be in either English or Mongolian language, and students and scholars from all countries and fields of study are invited to participate in the poster session and reception.

To propose a poster for the session, please send a brief abstract with a title (no more than 250 words) to Baigalmaa Begzsuren at info@mongoliacenter.org before March 1, 2010. Posters will be accepted on a rolling basis. Note: ACMS cannot provide funding for expenses related to attending the annual meeting or poster session.

For more information visit: www.mongoliacenter.org/poster.

The ACMS Annual Meeting is being held in conjunction with the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference. You do not need to be registered for the AAS conference to participate, but poster presenters should be members of the ACMS at the time of the meetings.

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is an American Overseas Research Center that supports research and academic exchange in Inner Asia. It maintains offices in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and at University of Wisconsin-Madison. More information on the ACMS and academic resources related to Mongolia may be obtained at www.mongoliacenter.org.

Online Mongolian Language Course

2009-12-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

ANS 193: Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture
January 21-May 6, 2010

University of Alaska Fairbanks and the American Center for Mongolian Studies are pleased to announce an online introductory Mongolian language course for the spring of 2010. The course will be offered for credit and cover beginner level competencies. The course will be taught by three instructors entirely online, so participation is open to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection. The number of participants is capped, so sign up as soon as possible to ensure a spot in the course.

For more information visit: http://www.alaska.edu/distance or call 800-277-8060
Registration and other fees: $115
No prerequisites or textbooks
Course materials available at www.mongoliacourses.org
Course description at www.mongoliacourses.org/ANS193

About Instructors:

T. Naraantsetseg is a Mongolian language instructor with over 15 years experience and 8 language book publications. She is a language instructor at the State Department Foreign Service Institute. She will be teaching from Virginia.

Brian White is a advanced-level non-native speaker of Mongolian and experienced foreign language instructor. He is the US Director of the American Center for Mongolian Studies, and lived in Mongolia for five years. He will be teaching from Wisconsin.

Curt Madison is an expert in distance education. He is the Director of eLearning Program Development at UAF. He will be teaching from Alaska.

ACMS Faculty Research Fellowship 2010

2009-11-24T13:56:00.000-08:00

American Center for Mongolian Studies is pleased to announce the first year of the ACMS Faculty Research Fellowship. The fellowship will support faculty members from US colleges and universities to conduct short-term field research in Mongolia between May and October 2010. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents currently teaching at a college or university in the United States.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: March 1, 2010
APPLICATION MATERIALS AT: www.mongoliacenter.org/faculty

The program priority is to support faculty from non-research intensive universities and colleges, especially faculty who are helping guide student research projects or who can show how the experience will enhance their teaching and outreach. This grant may be paired with the US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship (see www.mongoliacenter.org/field), which funds student field research in Mongolia, to create a student faculty research team. The faculty member and student must each submit applications to the appropriate program, and should indicate in their research statement their intention to work together. Prior experience working in Mongolia is not a requirement, and the program is open to all fields.

Applicants must have an identified Mongolian institution or individual who will serve as their Research Sponsor in Mongolia. Applicants without formal contacts in Mongolia can contact the ACMS at info@mongoliacenter.org to inquire about assistance in finding an appropriate Research Sponsor.

The fellowship award will include up to $2,500 for travel and living expenses. The funding is intended to serve as a catalyst and may be used in conjunction with funds from other sources.

More information about the program at www.mongoliacenter.org/faculty.
More information about the ACMS at www.mongoliacenter.org.

US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship

2009-11-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), with funding support from the US Department of State Education and Cultural Affairs Bureau, is pleased to announce the fifth year of the ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program to support student field research in Mongolia in summer or fall 2010. The program will provide $500-$3000 grants to approximately 5 students from US universities to conduct academic field research in Mongolia between May and October 2010. Student applicants can be at an advanced undergraduate, masters or pre-dissertation doctoral level, and all fields of study are eligible. Applicants must be either US citizens or permanent residents currently enrolled full-time in a university or college in the United States. Students graduating in spring 2010 are eligible to apply. No previous experience in Mongolia required.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: March 1, 2010
APPLICATION MATERIALS AT: www.mongoliacenter.org/field

The field research project should be conducted in conjunction with a Research Sponsor, such as a faculty member or senior researcher, and involve at least 6 weeks of fieldwork in Mongolia. Preference is given to projects in which the Research Sponsor will work directly with the student researcher in the field in Mongolia. To open the program to more potential collaborations, in 2010 the program will continue to consider funding well designed projects that demonstrate close collaboration between the student researcher and the Research Sponsor, even if the Research Sponsor is unable to travel to Mongolia to oversee the field research work. There are no eligibility restrictions with regards to the Research Sponsor's citizenship.

More information about all of ACMS fellowship opportunities at: www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship.
For questions, contact info@mongoliacenter.org.

ACMS Research Fellowship 2010-2011

2009-11-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), with funding support from the Henry Luce Foundation, is pleased to announce the third year of the ACMS Research Fellowship Program. The ACMS Research Fellowship Program annually supports three fellows to conduct up to 12-months of doctoral dissertation or post-doctoral research in Mongolia on topics in the Social Sciences or Humanities. Natural Science research is not eligible, unless there are clear areas in which the research furthers social, cultural, political, or policy knowledge relevant to Mongolia or the region.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 1, 2010
APPLICATIONS AT: www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship

The program seeks to promote research opportunities in Mongolia among scholars who have not included the country in their previous research, and to broaden the knowledge base of scholars already working in the country. Previous Mongolian Studies experience is not required, but projects should enhance knowledge of Mongolia and the Mongols within relevant academic disciplines or fields of study. Projects that link research conducted in Mongolia to research in other parts of Asia or across academic fields are especially encouraged.

Fellowship awards will include travel expenses to and from Mongolia, an accommodation and food allowance, and a stipend to cover research expenses. Awards will be adjusted based on the length of time spent conducting research in the region with a maximum award of $27,000 per fellow. Fellows will also have the opportunity to take intensive Mongolian language courses, select resources for inclusion in the ACMS Library, and participate in an annual academic seminar in Mongolia that will bring together international, regional and local scholars and students.

Research work under this program must begin between September 2010 and March 2011, and last for a continuous 6-12 months. Fellowship recipients must be based in Mongolia for the duration of their fellowship, but research travel in the broader region is encouraged. The 12-month term will allow recipients to stay in Mongolia for the academic year, which runs from September to June, and the summer months, which offer the best weather for field research.

More information about the program is available at www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship or contact info@mongoliacenter.org.

Mongolia Lecture Series Inaugural Event

2009-10-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Co-Sponsored by the International Institute, Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, and American Center for Mongolian Studies.

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 5pm-7pm
At the Alumni Lounge in the Pyle Center (702 Langdon St.) on the UW-Madison Campus.

The lecture will be followed by the American Center for Mongolian Studies opening event and reception.

Ambassador designate to Mongolia Jonathan Addleton
"US-Mongolia Relations: Looking Forward, Looking Back"

Ambassador designate to Mongolia Jonathan Addleton will offer reflections on past encounters with Mongolia during his prior assignment as USAID Mission Director in Ulaanbaatar (2001-2004) -- and provide a perspective on future opportunities and challenges that are likely to dominate US-Mongolia relations in the years ahead. Drawing to some extent on recent Senate confirmation hearings, he will focus especially on five areas: development; private investment; democracy and good governance; security; and people-to-people relationships. Scheduled to depart for Ulaanbaatar in mid-November, his participation at the opening of the American Center for Mongolia Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison marks his first appearance at an external event since being confirmed as the next US Ambassador to Mongolia earlier this year.

Mr. Addleton has been a career member of the US Foreign Service since 1984. Previous assignments include service as USAID Representative to the European Union in Belgium; USAID Mission Director in Pakistan, Cambodia and Mongolia; and USAID Program Officer in Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Yemen. During his previous three-year tenure in Mongolia (2001-2004), he traveled extensively within the country and was involved in a number of USAID-funded programs, including the revitalization of Xaan Bank as well as small business development through the Ger and Gobi initiatives.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Addleton worked briefly at the World Bank and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, both in Washington, DC. He has a PhD and MA from Tufts University and a BS from Northwestern University. He has written two books, "Some Far and Distant Place" (University of Georgia Press), a memoir of a childhood spent largely in Pakistan; and "Undermining the Center" (Oxford University Press), an assessment of the impact of international migration on development. In addition, he has published articles on Asia in a variety of journals, including "Asian Survey," "Asian Affairs," "Muslim World," and the "Foreign Service Journal.”

–
Mongolia Lecture Series aims to promote discourse and sharing of knowledge about Mongolia and the Inner Asian Region and is organized by Center for East Asian Studies and American Center for Mongolian Studies

Online Mongolian Dictionary

2009-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

A student at University of Wisconsin-Madison brought a handy resource to my attention yesterday. It is an online Mongolian dictionary which appears to derive its entries through contributions from the user community. I have only taken a cursory look at it so far, but my initial impressions are good. It is a testament to the ever growing sophistication of modern Mongolia. The dictionary is at: http://toli.query.mn/.

Oyu Tolgoi: End of the Beginning

2009-10-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

It is official. Mongolia and Ivanhoe Mines are married. On October 6th the government of Mongolia signed the long debated investment agreement with Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit.

In an ideal world the government would begin or would have already begun developing policy to go along with its new found cash flow. It will be interesting to see what they come up with beyond giving cash handouts of $1,000 per person. If my opinion counted, I would suggest public works projects for a working drainage system in Ulaanbaatar, real urban planning in the city that included parks and streets in the ger districts, rebuilding of wells across the countryside, and investment in the education sector as a start. But that is neither here nor there because I can't vote.

For now, I presume, the focus will turn to developing the mine site and the infrastructure to support it--not to mention the new gold rush mentality that will sweep the country as entrepreneurs and laborers head to the Gobi to seek their fortune. The last 5 years in Mongolia were wild enough with economic growth almost exclusively built upon speculation of great riches once the Oyu Tolgoi agreement was signed. Now with the prospect of real investment and substantial cash flow on the horizon one can only imagine the mad euphoria of get rich quick schemes that will grip every last person in Mongolia. These are heady times for sure.

Over the summer I had a chance to visit the Oyu Tolgoi site with a group of 15 Fulbright-Hays fellows from the US. Ivanhoe was very accommodating, and the camp manager provided us with an extensive tour of the facilities and area around the site. Oyu Tolgoi is situated in the least densely populated province in one of the least densely populated countries in the world. It is isolated to say the least. And yet, in this isolated corner of the world first-class economic and industrial activity is occurring. Although we visited at a low ebb of operations due to tense summer negotiations between Ivanhoe and the government, I was roundly impressed by the size and sheer magnitude of the project. It is a stunning contrast to just about everything else going on in the country, and at this point it's only in the initial stages of development. There is much, much more to come.

Of course there is a lot to consider beyond the development of the site itself. Water will be a huge issue. The site will demand a lot of water in a region that has very little. In-migration unregulated and unstoppable on a level commensurate with Ulaanbaatar is another serious issue. It is a desolate place now, but soon it could be a patchwork of ger districts in the desert. Then there is the inevitable and potentially accelerated encroachment of Chinese and Russian influence on Mongolia. It's enough copper and gold to attract more than just domestic prospectors.

When you see it, Oyu Tolgoi boggles the mind. It is going to be huge. A size unlike Mongolia has any experience with, and the next few years are going to be a wild ride with both positive and negative consequences. October 6th, 2009 marked the end of the beginning. Now the real work will begin.

Fellowships for Mongolia Specialists

2009-10-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

The US Department of Education has recently announced competitions for research fellowships in which specialists working in Mongolia are eligible to apply. More information is available at:

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Fellowship Program
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-23897.htm

Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship Program
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-23898.htm

East/Southeast Asian Archaeology and Early History

2009-10-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

University of Wisconsin-Madison has posted a couple of lecturer and tenure track positions recently for specialists in East Asian archeology and early history. Those out there who have experience doing excavations and other field work in Inner Asia, especially Mongolia, should consider applying. More information about the positions is at www.mongoliacenter.org/announcements.

ACMS Fall Speaker Series

2009-10-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

ACMS Fall Speaker Series has begun. For information about the scheduled lectures visit: www.mongoliacenter.org/ss. Check back regularly for updates to the schedule.

If you are planning to visit Mongolia between October and December 2009 to conduct research or study, please contact info@mongoliacenter.org to schedule a date to give a lectures. The lectures must be conducted in English, and all academic disciplines are welcome.

CAORC Multi-Country Research Fellowship 2009 - 2010

2009-10-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Multi-Country Fellowship Program supports advanced regional or trans-regional research in the humanities, social sciences, or allied natural sciences for U.S. doctoral candidates and scholars who have already earned their Ph.D. Preference will be given to candidates examining comparative and/or cross-regional research. Applicants are eligible to apply as individuals or in teams.

For more information about the program visit the announcements page of the ACMS website.

What I Did for My Summer Vacation

2009-09-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

August was an extremely busy time at the ACMS. The center hosted a group of 15 US teachers for three weeks as part of the Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program in addition to our summer language program and our usual work assisting scholars during the peak field season. The teachers spent 3 weeks in New Zealand before arriving in Mongolia, and in late July I flew there to meet the group and lead them north with a stopover in Beijing. The program was focused on how environments and landscape affect culture and history, and New Zealand and Mongolia both offered plenty of opportunities to compare and contrast these effects. For example, they both have more sheep than people, but only one has lovable little penguins with foot injuries.

As leader of the seminar in Mongolia I was in and out of Ulaanbaatar most of August, and as such this blog suffered a bit. Then at the end of August I moved to Madison, WI, and Robin Charpentier took over as the new Resident Director. Transition has made the blog suffer even further. However, as we enter October I am finally able to refocus some time on it.

Since July a lot has happened at ACMS and in Mongolia. ACMS relocated its US office to University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) in mid-September. Details on the move will be forthcoming in the next few weeks as we produce formal announcements and press releases. The Center for East Asian Studies has offered to host ACMS at UW-Madison, and they have been kind enough to appoint me an honorary fellow to facilitate my integration into the UW-Madison community. This move offers a lot of potential for growth for ACMS, as well as a very large academic community to promote Mongolian Studies.

I would be remiss in not thanking Western Washington University (WWU) for hosting ACMS over the last four years. WWU was a significant partner in the early stages of ACMS' development, providing much needed administrative and moral support. We, of course, look forward to continuing to work with WWU in the future as a member institution.

In Mongolia the Oyu Tolgoi agreement experienced a roller coaster ride over the summer. As of writing this, the agreement was still not signed but it was closer than it has ever been before to being completed. It is definitely a policy issue that seems determined to remain unresolved.

Ulaanbaatar also suffered from severe flooding over the summer. It was one of the rainiest summers I experienced there, and numerous times the lack of drainage and poor urban planning contributed to city wide flooding. I remember seeing an article I unfortunately did not read on a news website with the title "It's not the government's fault. It's the sky's fault." I wish I had read the article to determine whether the author was being sarcastic or not. I fear he/she was not.

More in the coming weeks...

Status of OT Agreement Update

2009-07-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg is reporting that Ivanhoe Mines has agreed to meet with the Mongolian government next week to reopen discussions on the OT agreement (see here). This information seems lifted from the Ivanhoe Mines press release here. Neither are very informative, and much of the information I see on news sites in Mongolian either deal with the issue in a hypothetical, out of context sort of way or with mild to impassioned invective being hurled in all directions. There are not a lot of simple facts to be had. Given the limited information available at this point, however, it appears the agreement suffered a serious if not fatal setback last week. However, I am somewhat convinced it may in the end be less of a setback than it appears.

Parliament approved giving the government, led by Prime Minister Bayar, the authority to conclude the OT agreement without further parliamentary input. However, the resolution tacked on a proviso that any agreement has to conform with current laws; i.e., the final agreement cannot have any special exemptions that contravene current laws. This is seen as a shot over the bow of the government and Ivanhoe Mines by those who do not want to see OT contain exemptions from taxes such as the controversial "Windfall Profit Tax." Or, in other words, it was a seemingly successful last ditch effort by opposing factions in parliament to scuttle the deal. That's because the government is now authorized to negotiate and sign an agreement, but parliament took away all of its bargaining chips. Without the ability to tailor the agreement with exemptions, provisos, and amendments on tax and revenue issues, the government goes to the table without the ability to negotiate in a practical way.

That is the pessimistic view, and it probably is a fair assessment of the situation. If one side of a negotiation is anchored to a position, then it ceases to be a negotiation. However, what I am going to be looking for in the coming week is whether this, in fact, is an accurate assessment of the government's bargaining position. The first meeting between the government and Ivanhoe should hopefully shed some light on this. The fact that the government has the authority to sign an agreement means that, even hamstrung by the parliamentary resolution, Prime Minister Bayar finds himself in an unprecedented position of actually being tantalizingly close to concluding a deal. This has to be worth a lot in terms of attracting the investors back to the table, and hence the meeting in the coming week. Moreover, agreements are all about wording, right? So, the thing to look out for is the PM and other ministers discussing details of the agreement with Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto that conform to the spirit of the parliamentary resolution but still give the government the ability to move from its starting position, thereby making what looks like a setback actually the final stage of refreshed negotiations.

A Strong Old Soul

2009-07-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

Even though there was some interesting movement (or non-movement from another perspective) on the mining agreement this last week, I unfortunately have no new updates at this point. That's because I was out of the loop for five days of relaxation in the khuduu (countryside).

I returned to Khotont Soum in Arkhangai Aimag where I was a teacher from 2002 to 2004. A lot has changed there since my last visit in the fall. New babies born, gas stations erected, a paved road laid, other improvements here and there. But, I was also sad to learn that my dog Bankhar passed away about 10 days before I arrived. He was an strong old soul, and accounts of age are arguably questionable in the countryside, but he was approximately 18 years old! That is fairly amazing for any type of dog in any type of environment, and that's 18 Mongolian winters outside! True, horses can live that long, and they do it outside, but somehow dogs get a little more credit for doing it because they generally live a more pampered life than livestock.

Bankhar was notoriously vicious to strangers and lovably sweet to those living in the khashaa (fenced in yard). Once in the middle of the night a jeep arrived at our khashaa to call upon the school director for some reason (I lived in a ger next to the director's house), and Bankhar literally jumped up on the hood of the jeep barking and spitting all over the windshield. No one in the vehicle would get out to pound on the gate, so they slowly backed up the jeep until Bankhar jumped off and then drove away. The story was relayed to us the next day by the driver of the jeep, and we all agreed that Bankhar was not to be messed with. At the same time, he was there every morning to greet me and was always ready for a little play. I felt very secure having him around.

My former school director is not one to get taken by sentimentality, but last week he spoke at length about how great a dog Bankhar was. He talked about how impressive it was for him to live so long and how both his strength as a guard dog and kindness as friend made him great. I have to agree. Rest in peace, Bankhar.

Khalkiin Gol

2009-07-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Khalkin Gol (or Nomonhan from the Japanese perspective) which pitted the Soviet and Mongolian armies against the Japanese army in a pivotal fight on the Mongolian-Manchurian border in present day Dornod Aimag. Although ostensibly a border dispute, the battle turned into a test of strength for both armies. The Soviet Union and Mongolian side won a decisive victory putting any Japanese designs on annexing Mongolia and Siberia permanently to rest for the duration of WWII. Last week an international conference on the battle was held, and later in the summer the Russian president will come for a ceremony at the battle site. More information is available on Wikipedia for those interested in the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khalkhin_Gol.

The town of Nomonhan and Khalkin Gol (Khalkin River) are visible in the satellite image below.

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More Details

2009-07-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday's edition of Өнөөдөр has a few more details about the proposed agreement, some of which I have seen in other papers. Interestingly the article in Өнөөдөр is on page two and emphasizes statements from MPs who are declaring this is a bad deal for Mongolia. So, oddly it does not cast the deal in the best of light, and yet it is also tucked inside the paper. The other details according to Өнөөдөр, though, are:

Mongolia will have a 34% equity share in the project, and the government will pay for it through 4 separate tax regimes.
The agreement will be for 30 years.
The project will be exempt from several taxes such as the value added tax and foreign workers tax for 7 years as construction for the project takes place. (This provision is not clear in the article, and it seems to also indicate an exemption from the Windfall profit tax).
Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe mines will put down a deposit of $125 million which will be repaid by Mongolia at a concessionary interest rate.
Construction must begin in 2 years of signing the agreement or the government can cancel the it.

Reading the different papers it is hard to get a clear definitive explanation of the terms of the deal, so I am not confident that anyone is reporting it accurately. Until the government publishes the draft, it will remain this way.

In other news, four employees in Rio Tinto's Beijing office were arrested this week for "stealing state secrets." This has created tension between the Chinese government and the Australian government which is being pressed by Rio Tinto to address the situation. For those who do not follow international mining news, a few months ago a Chinese mining conglomerate attempted to buy a strategic stake in Rio Tinto which was pursued by Rio Tinto's management but was ultimately defeated by Rio Tinto's shareholders. This made for some bad blood between China and Australia, and the arrest this week of the Rio employees naturally raises suspicion of continuing drama over that failed deal.

There was some speculation that one of the reasons the Oyu Tolgoi deal was floundering in the special and regular spring sessions of parliament was the fact that people here were wary of the fact that Rio Tinto was on the verge of becoming a company partially owned by a Chinese state run corporation. The stock purchase deal falling through may have contributed to a change of heart for some in parliament, as well as the addition of provisions that prohibit Rio Tinto or Ivanhoe Mines from selling their stakes to third-parties without permission from the government. So, corporate intrigue, geo-politics, and domestic politics are all affecting the trajectory of this deal. Very complicated, indeed.

Details of Deal Emerging

2009-07-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

If there is a complete draft version of the deal that will be debated in parliament available in the public domain, I have still not seen it. However, on www.olloo.mn there is an article from Unuuduriin Mongol which describes some of the terms of the deal. The key points in the article are:

The deal does not contain limits on the taxes collected from the project other than there being 7 specific kinds of taxes.
Oyu Tolgoi will pay a depletion tax (or the government will receive a depletion deduction from its share of expenses) following the tax law provisions over a 10 year period. That is, as the mine extracts minerals, it will have to compensate for the depletion in the value of the site itself by subtracting that value lost from the total expenses of the government and thereby increasing the total amount of income for the government. Each year the site will have to submit a five year extraction plan, and it will have to ask for government approval to deviate from those plans. All equipment and extraction techniques will have to be international standard to mitigate the rate of depletion and depreciation on the area around the site. (Note: This part of the article is difficult to understand, and the author does not explain it well).
Further the issue of water use and other natural resource depletion will be decided upon at the appropriate phase of the development process.
Within four years after beginning the project, at least 90% of the employees must be Mongolian citizens. However, during the initial phases of construction, because the project will require foreign expertise, no less the 60% of employees must be Mongolian citizens.
Fellowships to receive training and study mining issues at international and domestic institutions will be offered by Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto (how often and to what extent the article does not say).
The project will be subject to international audits, the provisions of which will be discussed between the project representatives and the tax authority.
If ownership of the project is transferred to a third party without approval from the government, then the government will have the right to cancel the agreement.

There clearly has to be more to the deal, so this is just a sampling of what might appear in the final draft. Complicated stuff, though, especially No. 2 above, and it is not surprising it confuses a lot of people.

Learning Mongolian Parliamentary Procedure

2009-07-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

The news portal site http://new.gogo.mn has illuminated what occurred in parliament today...somewhat. It is clear I need to learn a lot more about Mongolian parliamentary procedure, but, from what I understand of the explanation in this post, after much debate parliament voted to support the recommendations of the Economic Standing Committee with 39 of 59 members present voting for the resolution.

This is where it gets a bit fuzzy. Apparently the resolution based on the Economic Standing Committee's recommendations will be punted back to the party groups and standing committees for further debate and comment, and then it will be passed on to the full parliament again for formal debate. So, from what I gather, today's vote was on whether to consider debating the specifics of the agreement in the full parliament, presumably with an eye towards a formal vote on ratifying the agreement. In other words, today was a debate and vote on whether to debate and vote. Make sense? If this is a correct interpretation, then I would say Mongolia's democracy is thriving. It feels like I am in Washington. At any rate, today's vote means the agreement has moved to the next important stage of the process of being ratified...whatever that is.

An additional question the vote brings up for me is where were the other 17 members of parliament were during today's proceedings? Seems to me a bad day to miss a vote. Clearly there is still much I need to learn about how parliament works, and, based on the comments posted by readers below a lot of the articles online, I am not alone.

(Revision: Two members were not present because their seats are open. President Elbegdorj's former seat and one seat from MAXH according the Mongolian Parliament website at http://www.parliament.mn/whoswho. So, where were the other 15 members?)

Public Response to OT Deal

2009-07-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to get a full picture of what the general public response is to the spreading news that a deal on Oyu Tolgoi may be nearing, but based on information in the online media and TV9 the response so far has been tepid. Although, that may be a bad way to put it, because it could just as easily be that everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what happens. It is such a hot political issue, though, one might expect an explosion of indignation at the way parliament has sprung yet another important decision on the public. Instead, there was a protest which drew, based on what seemed to me a liberal estimate on www.news.mn, about 60 people to Sukhbaatar Square today. The TV9 report made it look more like there were 16 old ladies and a couple of out of work jeep drivers at the protest. Not exactly what one would call a political force on the trajectory of the deal. Whatever one might say about the way politicians work here (see the previous post), they just might turn out to be effective tacticians in this case; that is, if the goal is to get an agreement finally signed without special interest groups derailing it once again.

Mining Deal Before Naadam

2009-07-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

There was a committee meeting in parliament today to discuss issues surrounding whether to sign the stability agreement with Ivanhoe Mines. This appears to be the first public movement on the issue since rumors began circulating that an agreement might be reached before Naadam. Admittedly my Mongolian ability is not superb, but based on a few articles I have seen it looks like the editors of some news organizations are not particularly pleased with this rumor.

See here: УИХ Оюутолгойн гэрээний төслийг ямар ч байсан хэлэлцэхээр боллоо
And, here: Оюутолгойн гэрээг наадмаас ємнє батлахаар шуурхайлж байна

The tagline for the second article is rather telling. Let's see if I can interpret it with some accuracy. It is: Аливаа томоохон шийдвэрийг олон нийтийн анхаарал єєр тийшээ хандсан vед хулгайгаар хийдэг нь улстєрчдийн гэм биш зан болсон зvйл.

Interpretation: It is a case of politicians' predilection to take all serious decisions by theft when society is looking the other way.

Not a resounding endorsement of the decision to finalize things quickly. But, at the same time this is not surprising. It is a highly political issue. The fact the rumor is receiving a somewhat official airing in the media, though, may indicate that a deal is not only close but robust enough for everyone to feel it can be discussed freely. Maybe the hope is this gives the illusion of debate, even if cursory in nature, so as to allow the deflection of criticism post-signing. A plausible way to rush a decision is to catch someone off guard, pausing just long enough to suggest an opening to give comment, only to move quickly to resolution. In retrospect you can claim there was an opportunity to speak and the other person didn't take the opportunity, so the person has no right to complain. Can you do that with a multi-billion dollar mining deal and a whole society? As always, only time will tell.

The Bloody White Baron

2009-07-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

Freiherr Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg's name was as bizarre and tortuous as his life story. James Palmer retells the story of the "Mad Baron" Ungern-Sternberg, whose military career culminated in 1921 with a brief period of tyrannical rule over Khuree (Ulaanbaatar) and the surrounding countryside, in a recently published book called "The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia."

The Mad Baron is one of those historical personalities that at first blush makes you think you have encountered a piece of fiction. Surely it can't be true? I would have heard about this before. It is so bizarre. At least, that is how I reacted the first time I heard about the Mad Baron a few years ago. Once the story sunk in, though, it seemed less improbable relative to the many twists and turns in Mongolia's history, especially during the 20th century. And yet, it's still a pretty fantastical story.

James Palmer goes to great lengths to chronicle the Baron's early career and the events leading up to his invasion of Mongolia in 1919. The Baron truly lived up to his many nicknames which implied an insane and/or sadistic personality, and the book is full of rather gruesome tales of Ungern-Sternberg and his officers dispatching of people in very inhumane ways. The stories are the type that are difficult to read and comprehend but also difficult to turn away from. The atrocities he and his men committed were so extreme that they almost take on a sense of fictional violence like in a horror film. Freddy Kruger and Jason are fictional characters with no "based on a true story" attached to them, though, so these stories amplify the lore and legend of Ungern-Sternberg being more (less?) than human, possibly the personification of evil.

The book is an interesting read, and Palmer does a good job of telling the story. His descriptions of Mongolia at times tack towards inaccurate and superficial, but the Baron is the star of this story, so these minor issues are easy to overlook. It's also not clear at times what the sources of information in the narrative are. Citations often seem randomly distributed. He draws upon several primary sources from archives, but he also refers to "Beast, Men, and Gods" by Ferdinand Ossendowski often in the narrative as a secondary source. As a non-expert on the issue, it is not possible for me to assess whether this is a problem for the validity of the story as Palmer has written it. However, I was left at many points in the book in which a "fact" about the Baron was presented without a citation wondering: "How could he possibly know that without a supporting document or eyewitness account?" I don't usually like it when people nitpick details like that, especially for a non-academic book meant for a popular audience, but in this case, since there are not many other accounts of Ungern-Sternberg's life, this book is likely to be used in the future to educate many people about this story in history. It would be nice to know for sure if the "facts" can be accounted for. Nevertheless, it is worth a read if one has an interest in this truly bizarre figure in Mongolia's history.

The book is available in the ACMS library.

Rumor Mill at Full Production Levels

2009-07-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

The international press and local rumor mill are at full production levels regarding the Oyu Tolgoi stability agreement between Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto, and the Mongolian government. Conclusion of the agreement is apparently imminent according to some sources. See the following article for an example:

Talk is that Ivanhoe may win approval in Mongolia

The skeptical among us have pointed out that this sort of statement of imminent signing has been in the press numerous times before with the depressing result of more of the same. A scholar at the center pointed out that at about the same time the rumors began circulating, Rio Tinto made some financial transactions which strengthened confidence in both Ivanhoe's and Rio's ability to finance a deal if it is signed. This drove share prices up for Ivanhoe before the imminent signing rumors began leaking into the press, possibly creating a confounding element in people's appraisal of the situation. See the following article for an example:

Ivanhoe Soars After Rio Sells Shares to Repay Debt

The final twist is that most of this news has not made its way into the local media. This is indeed very interesting, because it raises some interesting possibilities. Is it because the rumors are false? No need to report on something that is patently untrue and counterproductive? If this is the case, then the local media has suddenly turned a new leaf. It would be so unlike them to show such a disciplined level of journalistic integrity. (Yes, I am a cynic with regards to the local media).

Another possibility is that a deal is nearing but it is extremely fragile. So fragile, in fact, that everyone involved would like to keep it quiet from local agitators until it is either pushed through or gains enough strength to stand against a potential tide of opposition. But at the same time, in order to strengthen bargaining positions, one or both sides are leaking information to international interests to create momentum behind the deal. I am inclined to believe this possibility is in play at the moment. A deal is ready to go, but it is not robust enough yet to get a full public airing. Are members of parliament living by the old adage that it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission? It may be so, and it may be the best strategy given the incendiary nature of the issue for some vocal oppositional factions. With some poll estimates showing that over 80% of the public would like to see an agreement signed, though, it may not be all that bad of a political strategy in the long run.

In the end, time will tell if it is for real or just more of the same.

Post-Election Riot One Year On

2009-07-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Things have been so hectic at the center lately that July 1 came and went without me taking notice of any events to remember the post-election riot last summer. I've seen a few articles in the newspaper examining the effect of the riot on the political landscape in Mongolia over the last year, but I missed the official or unofficial events organized to mark the day. A straw hat poll of different people around the office and at a reception Thursday evening indicated that I didn't miss much. Surprising, really, that someone didn't organize an ceremony to mark the day. That said, I don't sense a top-down conspiracy to suppress the memory of July 1, 2008 but rather a collective desire to let bad things remain in the past.

This was driven home by a colleague who said, "It wasn't that big of a deal." I definitely disagreed, and I reminded him that the mood in the city last summer was one that was decidedly dark; that is, until Tuvshinbayar won Mongolia's first gold medal in the Olympics. That moment was a moment of redemption, which was typified by the scene on the steps of parliament when political enemies Prime Minister Bayar (MPRP) and then MP Elbegdorj (DP) stood hand-in-hand above their heads intoxicated letting loose primal screams to the crowd in the square. Clearly the city and the country was in need of a catharsis. It was a big deal--the riot. The collective amnesia in this regard is something I find understandable and yet puzzling at the same time.

It is understandable, because leaving the past in the past is a desire most of us have when bad things happen. What is puzzling is that there doesn't seem to be a politician or a political group that feels the exact opposite. I have heard that families of the victims killed the evening of July 1 are petitioning to have a memorial erected in the park in front of the old MPRP building, possibly on the very spot Lenin's statue currently stands. But, this apparently has not gained momentum or a broad base of support. In a purportedly polarized political system, though, it is baffling, in a sense, that political leaders have not taken this issue up as political bludgeon against rivals. The event has enough fodder for both sides to use to their advantage. Repressive government, out of control opposition, failed social elite, you name it, and that evening has a political hook for your position. The lack of such political maneuvering, however, may lend credence to the hypothesis that Elbegdorj's presidential victory retroactively legitimized the parliamentary elections and therefore fully delegitimized the basis of the riot, making it become in the minds of most people what it probably always was--an act of political bravado and bluff that spun widely out of the control of the organizers. If this is true, it makes sense politically why people would choose to forget. It is a minefield of an issue that really holds no value to anyone with political ambitions.

In the end, the epilogue written for the July 1 riot may not be all that impressive or interesting. That in itself is interesting, though, because when one thinks back at that night in an honest way it really looked like things were falling apart.

Ulaanbaatar Heritage

2009-07-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

An intern working for us this summer has made an interesting website discovery. Well, it is a discovery like Columbus discovered America. He was scooped by Chris Kaplonski who has a link to the website on his own website, and, of course, the people who made the website knew about it. Nonetheless, it is a nice find.

A Japanese anthropologist, according to Chris Kaplonski, in collaboration with Mongolian counterparts, developed a survey of Ulaanbaatar architectural heritage. Dozens of buildings and other structures in Ulaanbaatar have basic metadata entries, pictures, and maps of their locations. The metadata entries cover the basic stats and history of the buildings. It's a neat site, and I am trying to think of ways to raise awareness about it. This blog entry is one way. Maybe someone will see it and have a burning desire to add to it, too. It definitely needs work, but nevertheless it is a good first start.

The site is at: http://ulaanbaatar.m-heritage.org.

Mongolia Profile on Al Jazeera

2009-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Al Jazeera did a recent profile piece on Mongolia. It is fairly interesting given the depth of the report, and the new president got some hard questions from the interviewer. Both parts are below.

The freeze frame has two of Mongolia's "Top 50 Most Important People" according to a fun book in the ACMS library. Sumati in the top screen is the director of the Sant Maral Foundation whose survey data I have referred to in other posts. And, President Elbegdorj needs no introduction in the bottom screen.

Simple Propositions about Complex Circumstances

2009-06-20T03:42:00.000-07:00

In President Elbegdorj's inaugural address in the great hall of the parliament building he emphasized the historic importance of this year's presidential election, laying out in stark terms the challenges facing the nation. Poverty, corruption, indolent and incompetent leadership, monumental choices regarding Mongolia's untapped wealth, and other issues to make the most idealistic wither at the thought of trying to solve them. Echoing a bit of President Obama, he called on all citizens to work together in the common cause to overcome these challenges, as his presidency will need their support to achieve a new future for Mongolia.

The idea of a new future for Mongolia has gotten me thinking about the fact that the public discourse surrounding politics in the country has a tendency to devolve into simple propositions about complex circumstances. Predicting Mongolia's future is a game that everyone participates in, yet the level of play never seems to rise above the amateurish. Things are often painted in stark, polarizing ways that lack the full nuance of the situations, with the ultimate unfolding of reality diverging almost routinely from the commentary and analysis provided by the social and political elite. Both Mongolians and foreign observers are guilty of doing this, taking a complex web of political and social interests and distilling it down to one or two simplistic notions nearly devoid of context or predicated on flimsy historical facts. A happened because of corruption. B is occurring because of the inertial effects of the "Communist mentality." C is the manifestation of neo-Putinism. D is just Mongolia for you. These sorts of ideas are thrown around so often without critical analysis, I think we all get sucked into believing, probably out of habit and expediency, that analyzing complex political issues in this way is not only acceptable for Mongolia but most effective.

It, of course, is not effective, because the vast majority of us remain unable to predict with any sort of accuracy how political situations will ultimately be resolved. Complex issues like the mining agreements, for example, remain mysteries, and I perceive this to be the case for everyone, from the streets to the Prime Minister's office, with the degree of the mystery only varying marginally with the level of one's own access to primary sources of information. The discourse and analysis does not match the complexity of the situation, and it inevitably fails the test of time.

I came across a passage written by Owen Lattimore in "Nationalism and Revolution in Mongolia" that is not exactly a perfect fit to what I am describing but nonetheless it draws a sufficient analogy to the kind of discourse that predominates when analyzing Mongolia's present and future:

Revolutionaries tend to make history too simple. They burn with a fire in which they try to sear away the infinite complexities of individual character and the infinite multiplicities of social variation, so that they can confront the absolutely bad with the absolutely good. But revolution is not in fact a melodrama of the "good" against the "bad." It is the most tragic form of history, in which good men often make bad decisions not for evil reasons but for reasons of human weakness that may range from ignorance, or partial knowledge (which is often more treacherous than ignorance) [emphasis added] to such things as a mere hesitancy in making up their minds which, in less urgent times, would not matter much either to them or to their fellows. By the same token, revolution is also a phase of history in which the irony is often supplied by the "good" decisions made by "bad" men. (pg. 32-33)

In the passage he is speaking to the multifaceted circumstances that befell Mongolia roughly 1900-1940s where Mongolia faced historic and monumental decisions regarding its social and economic system and, of course, of utmost importance even today, about its sovereignty. But, it is also a good working analogy for the conventional framework used to produce propositions about Mongolia and the direction it is heading. The problems are more complex than dichotomies of good vs. bad, socialism vs. capitalism, democracy vs. autocracy, and yet the vast majority of commentary wholeheartedly embraces this framework.

There is nothing wrong with a political leader such as President Elbegdorj using simple propositions to make more profound statements, but I sometimes wonder if we are all not doing ourselves a disservice by not demanding more of the leaders of Mongolia and ourselves in terms of examining the circumstances more critically for, as Lattimore writes, the "infinite complexities of individual character and the infinite multiplicities of social variation." As Mongolia's exposure to complex geo-political circumstances, especially in the mining sector, continues to grow, a great deal of the success or failure of the decisions made will rest on whether they were made out of ignorance, partial information, or genuine and effective analysis. At this point, however, the current state of affairs indicate to me that the road ahead to a new future for Mongolia is still one cloaked in fog.

Mongolia Has New President

2009-06-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Elbegdorj was sworn in as president this afternoon. After taking the oath of office, which was administered in the parliament building, he gave a speech to those in attendance. After that he changed out of his del (traditional Mongolian robe) and into a business suit to give a speech on Sukhbaatar Square and review a military parade. Here are a few of photos of the Sukhbaatar Square events.

Summer Ritual

2009-06-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

It has taken so long to happen that I foolishly thought this year we might all escape a summer ritual in Ulaanbaatar. It turns out that it is a summer ritual that affects millions of people across the Eurasian continent who are unlucky enough to live in flats supported by a Soviet designed infrastructure. I learned this fact last summer when a reporter from the BBC did a report on the very same ritual happening in Kiev, Ukraine in his apartment block. What ritual, you may ask? The ritual of losing hot water service for 2-3 weeks each summer for "cleaning and maintenance" on the pipes. Hot showers are a distant memory at my apartment block until July 6th when service starts again.

This summer ritual is a curious aspect of the heating and water systems constructed under the Soviet-style centralized economic model. Until seeing the BBC report last year, I had always thought it was a phenomenon special to Ulaanbaatar. However, it seems we are not alone in being deprived the luxury of hot water for the sake of the system.

Someone in the diplomatic corps once told me about a similar situation in China. The Chinese government notified his embassy that hot water service would be discontinued for several weeks for "maintenance" at the diplomatic housing complex. The foreign service officer then replied to the Chinese government by telling them if that was the case, then the embassy would expect a reduction in the price of rent paid on the diplomatic housing. The government balked at this. But the embassy persisted on the claim that reduced service meant reduced payment. The response on the Chinese side was to complete the maintenance in 3 days rather than the normal 3 weeks, which saved the government from losing much sought after rent money but caused another problem altogether. It demonstrated to everyone else that it was possible for the work to be done quickly if the right incentives were in place.

Sometimes I wonder if the summer ritual in Mongolia might also lack the proper incentives to make it shorter overall. That is the reason I call it a ritual. I am not entirely convinced the long wait is anything more than bureaucratic sloth manifest as a yearly occurrence. It's of course silly to complain too much about not having hot water in a city where a significant portion of the population does not even have access to running water hot or cold, but it is indicative of larger problems of efficiency and administration that affect everyone. At any rate, for the next couple of weeks I join millions of other people in the world experiencing this summer ritual.

ACMS Research Fellowship Seminar

2009-06-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

Alternative Concepts: Conducting Research from a Mongolia-Centered Perspective

9am-3pm - June 25th, 2009, Open Society Forum Conference Room

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), with funding support from the Henry Luce Foundation, will organize a seminar with the theme “Alternative Concepts: Conducting Research in the Mongolian Context” as part of the first year of the ACMS Research Fellowship Program. The ACMS Research Fellowship program brings a cohort of 3 US scholars to Mongolia each year to conduct dissertation or post-doctoral research. The seminar will be free and open to the public. The working language of the seminar will be English.

More information about seminar is available here: ACMS Research Fellowship Seminar.

Campaign Survey

2009-06-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Several of the English news outlets in Mongolia are reporting that the Open Society Forum recently conducted an analysis of campaign publicity and a survey of where people received their information during the presidential campaign. An example story, which appears to be the same story being recycled by all the news outlets is here: http://www.mongolia-web.com/. There are two interesting things about the analysis and survey.

1. The amount of negative stories and information from both campaigns and the media in general was essentially the same. Assuming they selected stories randomly and there was a uniform, if not overly objective, analysis of the content, then the 3 percent difference might just be noise. At any rate, there is evidence that both campaigns had an equal share of sinners and misguided supporters.

2. The number of people who tended to believe negative stories about the incumbent president was higher than the number of people who believed negative stories about the president by a wide margin. This is really interesting.

Number 2 raises several questions about the survey methodology; e.g., were respondents randomly selected, was there a control for party affiliation, what was the exact wording of the questions, and so on. Assuming the numbers are accurate from a methodological and therefore statistical standpoint, the next set of questions is: What is the reason for the large margin? Were negative stories about Elbegdorj more patently false? Was the Democratic Party more astute at framing issues and attacking Enkhbayar's character? Were people more predisposed to believe negative stories about the incumbent and to disregard negative stories about the opposition? Are responses a true reflection of people's beliefs, or do the numbers show a reverse bump for Elbegdorj post-victory? That is, are people remembering the situation differently because he won the election?

A related observation from this data is that a majority of those surveyed tended not believe the negative stories about either side. What that actually means in terms of votes is impossible to say without more information, but it does say something about the respondents themselves. Either they really were not swayed by the stories or they are aware enough of the political process and the lack of credibility of media outlets to want to openly state that they are not naive, even if in fact they may be. Does this indicate that the average voter is far more sophisticated about his/her media consumption and personal analysis than popular sentiments might concede?

The news stories about the analysis and survey don't answer any of the vital questions these data raise, and I am not sure if Open Society Forum will release the report in full (I will try to get my hands on it). The story does demonstrate further, however, that the voting public in Mongolia may be tougher to pin down than common wisdom indicates. We need more work done like this, especially by people willing to go the next step and to analyze the results.

Navigating Bureaucracy

2009-06-04T19:02:00.001-07:00

As our busy season begins in the Ulaanbaatar office I am reminded of the need to share a bit of advice to international scholars coming to Mongolia to conduct field research for the summer. Make sure you work with people experienced and wise in the ways of navigating Mongolia's bureaucracy. In-laws, former students, a guy you met on the flight over, or anyone else who does not actually interact with the government on a regular basis is probably not going to cut it if you're planning to do something complex, which in Mongolia could be requesting just about any service provided by a government agency.

Mongolia has a complicated (and inefficient) bureaucratic system which is exacerbated by the fact that each ministry and sub-department has its own rules and interpretations of rules. There is also a tendency for bureaucrats to not volunteer pertinent information, further making things opaque, confusing, and all around frustrating. The crazy thing is, though, if you know the rules, most of the time it is really easy and quick to navigate the bureaucracy. That may seem like an exaggeration, but it really is true when it comes to academic research. I am not about to make excuses for government systems, and I am not saying this is true for all agencies, all the time. However, in my experience a significant percentage of the trouble foreign researchers encounter is due to making the following common mistakes:

1. Assuming there is no rule governing an activity because no one has ever said there was a rule.
2. Assuming the problem is a language barrier, and any person fluent in Mongolian should suffice in rectifying issues.
3. Mistaking a lack of pertinent information for an arbitrary and capricious process, and therefore a "corrupt" process.

Mistake one is the most common mistake. It probably comes from a very basic fallacy in which researchers assume their local counterparts know all the requirements governing research activities. This is often not the case, in part, because some projects are outside the experience of the local counterparts, or they themselves have been working blithely unaware that they are violating the law. They may be just as ignorant of the rules as their international colleagues. Therefore, it is always a good idea to think "Does this require special permission in my home country?" and if the answer is "Yes" or "It seems like it would" then you probably need special permission to do it in Mongolia, too. Local counterparts can generally get away with breaking the law or violating regulations because of enforcement difficulties created by a lack of resources at relevant agencies or just a plain lack of awareness among everyone involved. No such "shadow" environment exists for foreign scholars because of the very fact that most foreign scholars stand out, and therefore authorities can be selective about enforcing rules and regulations on those who more often than not are in fact violating rules and regulations, even if naively.

Mistake two is probably the most subtle and therefore insidious mistake that international researchers make. All interactions with the government in Mongolia are people-to-people. That means that the person acting on your behalf should have strong interpersonal communication skills, be able to garner respect from local authorities, and in general have enough experience to navigate new areas of the bureaucracy. An international researcher who hires a 20 year old college student to act as translator for 25,000MNT per day should not be surprised if at government agency after government agency he/she encounters obstacle after obstacle. Would one rely on an inexperienced kid to handle a complex task in one's own home country? No, of course not. The situation is no different in Mongolia, and often language is a necessary but not sufficient tool for solving problems. Experience is far more important in the end than language ability, and yet we see scholar after scholar putting all their faith in people who have only one skill: being bilingual.

Mistake three is just poor thinking. Bureaucrats the world over are notoriously unhelpful, incompetent, and arguably sadistic. No one ever says, "Boy, I am looking forward to going to the Department of Motor Vehicles today!" without a obvious tone of sarcasm. Government offices are like dentist offices, places most people go when they have no other choice. This is true in every country I have ever lived in. The best policy is to always assume that the government official is actually doing his/her job, and the obstacles one is encountering are due to mistakes one and two above, or because one is just having a bad bit of luck dealing with a stubborn civil servant. Interpersonal communication skills of the variety that Dale Carnegie made famous in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" are more likely the solution to the problem than distilling everything into bromides about corruption, developing countries, or "Communist mentalities." This is not true of every country, but in Mongolia one is better served to think the best rather than the worst of the government officials one encounters.

The point of writing all this is to remind everyone that the American Center for Mongolian Studies staff have the experience and interpersonal communication skills to effectively deal with the Mongolian bureaucracy. Our batting average is not 1.000, but it is pretty high. We often find ourselves helping scholars resolve big messes they have created for themselves (although they rarely see it that way--sigh) because they made the three mistakes above or some other unique mistake that boggles the mind. Sometimes I wonder why this is the case, and one possibility is the fact there are few people or organizations out there reminding people there is a system that is fair, somewhat effective, and quick if one works with people who actually know the rules. When in doubt, send us an e-mail: info@mongoliacenter.org. It's what we are here for.

Another Dictionary

2009-05-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

The ACMS library has acquired another Mongolian dictionary published by the Academy Sciences. It is a 5 volume unabridged dictionary, which, according to a couple of sources, was awarded "The Best Publication of the Year" by some unnamed body that issues such awards. It is an impressive publication and another source of definitions for contemporary Mongolian. The Golden Age of Publishing is truly upon us!

More on the Presidential Election

2009-05-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

"Sant Maral" Foundation has been conducting a survey called the "Politbaromter" for several years to measure the opinions of citizens nationwide. The April survey was published just before the presidential election. It is not clear if Sant Maral randomly selects its respondents, as the survey does not contain information about the methodology used, but it does say a "representative sample of 1,240 respondents" from the city and several rural provinces was taken. I mention the survey because it offers some contradictory data to some of the international coverage of the election.

The dominant narrative in the international media seems to be that the presidential election represented some sort of sweeping mandate for change. This, of course, is the narrative that the opposition party and the president-elect hammered home in the campaign. The election results show that in the city Elbegdorj's victory was decisive, and in the countryside he was competitive but lost the popular vote. The corollary conclusion from this is that there is a significant divide in political views between rural and urban constituencies, with Ulaanbaatar being predominantly more pro-Democratic Party (DP).

Both these claims are dubious. The president-elect won by little less than 4 percent of the popular vote. That is a respectable margin, but it also means that over 47% of the population voted for the status quo. Hardly a mandate for change. The second claim about the rural and urban divide is curious for the simple fact that the vast majority of the city's population until recently were residents of rural constituencies. This means that either the average migrant to the city is a DP supporter or that somehow living in the city makes the MPRP less appealing. The latter explanation seems to me to have a bit more bite, but maybe not for an obvious reason.

These voters are not anti-MPRP in the city, but rather anti-government. They are anti-government because arguably their living standards have fallen in comparison to rural constituents due to the reality of life in the city in comparison to the countryside--especially because public servant salaries have increased and the government employs a significant number of people in rural communities. Poverty, lack of services, crime, and unemployment in ger districts is naturally going to focus a lot of acrimony towards the people who are doing nothing to correct the imbalances; in other words, the government--not necessarily a particular political party.

This is demonstrated in the Sant Maral survey in the questions "In your opinion is the MPRP headed in the right or wrong direction?" and "In your opinion is the DP headed in the right or wrong direction?" The respondents for "right direction" for both questions are very similar across constituencies with a slight lead for the DP. However, respondents for "wrong direction" show a much stronger belief that the MPRP is heading in the wrong direction in the countryside and nationwide--but not in Ulaanbaatar. "Don't know" responses are similar to the "right direction" responses with approximately 36%-40% of respondents.

These questions garner somewhat ambiguous results, but the pattern, if there is one, seems to me to be an anti-government one. In other words, MPRP is competitive with DP (if 35%-40% responding you're headed in the right direction is a competition) in terms of satisfied constituents, but it is less competitive with dissatisfied constituents. This does not translate into a gain for DP, though, which might indicate that similar results would occur if the DP was the ruling party. A more likely explanation is that undecided city dwellers go to the polls thinking "Who is in charge?" and then vote for the opposition party.

Then one gets to the question about satisfaction with the government and the opposition, and the results show the government with a slight lead over the opposition nationwide. There are more people satisfied and less people dissatisfied with the government than the opposition, but basically the results are the same. There is only a marginal difference in opinion. Unfortunately there is no data parsing rural and urban, but given that Ulaanbaatar is approximately 50% of the population, any difference would probably be marginal like the reponses above.

This data suggests that either people are fairly apathetic about the political process or non-partisan voters (independent voters as we call them in the US) are not entirely convinced either party is all that good. Hardly a mandate for sweeping change. I would put my money on a calculated check on power and optimism that maybe change could come with someone new as the explanation for Elbegdorj's victory as opposed to broad reputiation of Enkhbayar or the MPRP.

The second part of the international narrative is somehow the new president will wield tremendous power in determining the status of important issues such as the Oyu Tolgoi and Tavan Tolgoi projects. There is no doubt that the new president will try to involve himself in the process, and, as I alluded to in a previous post, he may have a better opportunity than any other president to impose himself on these important issues. But, there will be a political cost to him and his party if he tries to overreach.

First, back to the Sant Maral survey. Nationwide 40% of respondents think that the government (i.e. Prime Minister and Cabinet) should take a leading role in solving the country's problems. Parliament is the choice of 19.3%, and the president comes in at a distant third with 11.3%. Currently the government is a coalition government, a concession the MPRP accepted in the summer to have DP parliamentarians accept the results of the elections. There was no legal imperative that compelled MPRP to accept a coalition government given that the party won an outright majority of seats in Parliament. There certainly was a political imperative as the party struggled to distance itself from allegations of vote rigging and a fraudulent election. Power sharing was a visible way to demonstrate the party had not conspired to "steal the election."

With the victory of Elbegdorj, the magnanimous concession of Enkhbayar, and the statements from Bayar that it is not the MPRP's habit to contest the results of elections it has lost (starting the revisionist narrative about the parliamentary elections), and the perceptions of citizens about who has ultimate responsibility to solve the problems of the country, there is a possibility that the political pressure to maintain the coalition government could quickly erode with an overreaching and meddlesome president from the opposing party. The stage is already set for MPRP to dissolve the current government if politically they can get away with it. They did it in 2005 when the opportunity arose, and one would assume they'll do it again if they can. And, if Elbegdorj is an obstructionist without reason or wide popular support, then it is reasonable to think at some point in the coming year a new government will be formed under an full MPRP cabinet.

But, there would be a price to be paid, albiet a moderate one, on the MPRP side if things came to this. MPRP holds a 45 seat majority in Parliament, but that is 6 seats short of making legislation veto proof. That means that MPRP will still need to reach out to moderate DP members and the three independent MPs in order to ensure that any challenges from the president can easily be defeated. So, it is probably more likely for a new government to be formed if the president alienates 5 or more opposition MPs sufficiently enough to force them to accept a MPRP government, a not completely unlikely possibility given that Elbegdorj was forced to resign from his chairmanship of the DP after the Parliament elections due to significant internal dissent.

The bottom line: It is all very complicated, and it is too soon to tell what will happen. The one thing that is certain is that the president-elect's options are limited and the pressure is on him. There is much more that could go wrong for him than the MPRP, so the real unknown is whether he'll be able to beat the pressure while at the same time deliver noticeable and productive change. The other interesting thing to look out for is whether dissenting (from Elbegdorj) DP members and independent MPs will be the real winners from the election. If MPRP forms a new government, the real power will accumulate around MPs who will swing a legislative vote, further eroding the president's relevance if the MPRP wins the public relations and political horsetrading battle.

ACMS Mongolia Turns Five

2009-05-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

The ACMS opened its first office in Ulaanbaatar on May 27th, 2004 in a ceremony attended by ACMS Executive Director, the university president, US ambassador, members of the media, and the academic community. The center was originally housed in a two room office in Building No. 1 of the National University of Mongolia, but moved to Building No. 5 upon its completion three and half years ago. In the spring of 2007 the center moved to its current location, opening for the first time a library, reading room, and resource center large enough to provide services to hundreds of students and faculty per week.

To mark this milestone, ACMS will host a reception on May 28th after the Speaker Series lecture (the 67th lecture to date). More information about the lecture at www.mongoliacenter.org/ss.

The lecture and the reception are open to the public. We hope to see you there, and we hope to see you in the center over the next five years.

Mongolia Elects New President

2009-05-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

It’s official. According to www.news.mn, the General Election Committee has called the presidential election for Ts. Elbegdorj over his rival current President N. Enkhbayar. A year on from the parliamentary elections, which resulted in a riot that destroyed the MPRP headquarters and parts of the Cultural Palace, Mongolian voters seem to have voted for change. The preliminary results give President-elect Elbegdorj 51.24 percent of the vote nationwide, or just over a 40,000 vote lead out of 1.097 million total ballots cast (again, according to www.news.mn).

I spent most of Sunday monitoring the election in Chingeltei District in the 12th-16th microdistrict polling stations. As the day progressed and I saw the amount of people voting, I started to get a feeling in my gut that things might go Elbegdorj's way. I thought Elbegdorj had little chance in winning the election before Sunday. However, something about the mix of people I saw voting and the extreme effort that everyone seemed to be making at the polling stations to remain fair, started to work on my gut. Something just seemed to indicate that people were taking the election seriously, and the people showing up at the polling stations were not interested in the status quo. This bares out in the election results for the city, at least, where Elbegdorj won by more than 12 points. He also seems to have remained competitive in the rural constituencies losing by only 2 points.

It is certainly not my intention to suggest that I guessed the correct outcome, but only to convey that I sensed that my previous estimation about Elbegdorj's chances was incorrect. The feeling actually compelled me to think about what if Elbegdorj won. What would that mean for the political landscape in Mongolia?

It is too early to tell, but there seems to be a reasonable argument to make that Sunday in many ways constituted a win-win situation for the ruling party. If Enkhbayar had won, then the status quo would have been maintained. An obvious win. Where we stand is slightly more interesting because the loss of the presidency at first blush may appear like a serious blow to the MPRP. However, it seems to me that much of the political pressure going forward is placed on Elbegdorj and by extension the opposition party. Another win for MPRP.

The president is a somewhat ill-defined position in the Mongolian constitution focused on being a ceremonial figurehead. However, there are provisions in the constitution which give the president the ability to impose himself on the political process; for example, the right to veto legislation passed by parliament. President Enkhbayar had made a point of stretching the limits of presidential power during his term by vetoing legislation and, most spectacularly, imposing a state of emergency and calling up the military during the riot last summer. This use of power was seen by his critics as an overreach, but his supporters saw it as a proper interpretation and execution of the powers vested in the president's office.

Elbegdorj is therefore inheriting an ascendant office with precedents that will allow him to impose himself more on the political process. Maybe much more than any previous president, in fact, and he has demonstrated in the past he is not afraid to start a political brawl.

This is where the real difficulty lies for Elbegdorj and where the opportunity may lie for MPRP. Prime Minister Bayar and President Elbegdorj will most certainly become contentious public rivals (if not already contentious enough). But, Bayar's authority to push the political process forward is given automatically by his status as the head of government. Elbegdorj, on the other hand, is inheriting a position that is imbued with some nascent executive powers, but the extent of those powers is still very much up for political debate, even if the electorate may be predisposed to accepting efforts to further strengthen them. The progress made with Enkhbayar could be easily undone by a politician ill prepared to handle the delicate nature of indirect power that the presidency represents. One too many gaffes or attempts to wield power that turn into obvious and easily defeated overreaching, and one's opponent in a rival party can look quite good by comparison.

The pressure is on Elbegdorj to perform, because, assuming the next few days pass without incident from MPRP supporters, the victory could potentially put a stamp of legitimacy on the parliamentary elections through revisionist history. The victory demonstrates that MPRP does not wield absolute power, and it took defeat magnanimously--unlike rival parties in the parliamentary elections. From a political strategy standpoint, it would make sense to play up this aspect of the election and then stand back and hope the new president makes a fool of himself.

I am not suggesting this is what will happen. I have no idea what kind of president Elbegdorj will make, or what kind of strategy MPRP will adopt to counter this victory. However, the political pressure will naturally build on Elbegdorj to perform above average as president and to effectively challenge the power of the government led by Bayar (assuming rivalries remain). I see the road ahead being much more difficult for the new president and somewhat easier for the ruling party because of the nature of the political situation. The onus is on the new president to prove he can deliver the change he promised, and if he fails to deliver, he may diminish the office of the presidency and his own party in the effort. The work begins today, and one almost thinks the old phrase "careful what you wish for..." is apt for the current situation.

Golden Age of Publishing

2009-05-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

The evidence seems to be mounting that we are experiencing a new golden age of publishing in Mongolia. Admon Press seems to be reprinting old titles and producing new content at rate possibly unprecedented even during the Socialist Era. One item that has me particularly excited is the reprinting of the standard Mongolian dictionary which has not been published by all accounts since the mid-sixties. The ACMS library has a copy of the old edition, and next month we'll purchase the new edition (see them side by side in the picture). At the risk of revealing myself as a complete nerd, this new dictionary is a truly exciting thing for anyone interested in studying Mongolian, especially at the advanced level. The dictionary is only 39,500MNT which means it is within easy reach of most libraries, organizations, and a substantial portion of the population, and it contains updated and new entries completely in Mongolian.

Culture and language are inextricably linked, so dictionaries are much more than tools for learning or translating. They are also a record in time of the essence of a society. I shouldn't overdo it, but it is a fairly momentous occasion to have this dictionary available, because really good dictionaries that capture the essence of Mongolia are the exception not the rule. As a native speaker of English and non-native speaker of Japanese, I have almost boundless selection available to me in terms of dictionaries. I took for granted when I first arrived in Mongolia that quality dictionaries would be available for the language, because it made sense for any community of speakers to focus substantial time and effort on documenting a language. The Oxford Dictionary for English is the standard by which all English dictionaries are measured with its extensive information about not only the definition of words but also the etymology of words and extensive examples in context. I foolishly thought I would find something similar in Mongolia, and instead I found that the most widely available dictionaries were those used solely for translating Mongolian into other languages or vise-versa. You can't beat the natural forces of economics when it comes to less commonly spoken languages is what I quickly learned.

The new addition of the Mongolian dictionary does not have the history of words like the Oxford Dictionary, but this is understandable because of the scholarly effort it would take to assign histories to even a small portion of the total Mongolian lexicon. It would be a great project, though, if a Mongolian scholar or group of scholars put together a dictionary in the manner the Oxford Dictionary was developed through years of individual scholars and lay people contributing their tacit knowledge of the language as described in the book "The Professor and the Madman." In the absence of the history of words, though, the entries in the new edition of the dictionary do include substantial numbers of examples in context which is very helpful.

In this emerging golden age of publishing, I am curious what the margins are like for the publishing companies? I wonder not because I want to go into publishing myself, but rather in hopes that the money is good enough to sustain the industry. Published works are an integral part of any society, and it is heartening to think a written record of the current era is being produced at an unprecedented and, hopefully, sustainable rate.

City Pride

2009-05-21T19:11:00.001-07:00

Every so often a musical group produces a song that is a fitting homage to a city. I think the Lemons on their most recent album have done this with their song "1983...1986" which is a light tribute to Mongolia's city. The video is particularly fun for its historical footage of Ulaanbaatar before the frenetic and unfettered development of the last two decades. An idyllic reminiscence of much simpler times gone by.

It is easy to sometimes forget that Ulaanbaatar has a storied past as a crossroads and cosmopolitan destination for Eurasian explorers, travelers, merchants, and spiritual pilgrims. Recently the ACMS library purchased a book that was published in 2006 in commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of the founding of the Great Mongol State. It is a fairly thorough photographic and pictorial history of the city, and includes some amazing archival pictures such as the dedication ceremony of the Sukhbaatar statue on Sukhbaatar Square when the square was an huge open patch of dirt and there was no parliament building. The photos are supplemented with passages describing different aspects of the city's development overtime, which for those unaware, has been going on for 370 years! I would encourage anyone with curiosity about Ulaanbaatar's history to stop by the center and look at the book. It is also available at Internom bookstore at the unbelievable price of 30,000MNT.

Ulaanbaatar can be an eyesore much of the year, but with the budding of spring leaves on the trees the city is becoming greener by the day. The Lemons song, the book, and the reemergence of natural colors outside the center windows does remind me that for all its faults Ulaanbaatar is a unique city that each citizen can find pride in. It is a 370 year work in progress, and, for all its supposed isolation, it has certainly never been a utterly boring place to live.

Hidden Gobi

2009-05-18T19:32:00.001-07:00

As part of a weekend trip out to eastern Umnugovi Aimag with friends from Khankhongor Soum, the school driver from Khanbogd Soum (a mutual friend) led our group out to an interesting geological formation about 30km from the soum center. He emphasized to me several times that few people knew about the place, and everyone in the Khankhongor contingent confirmed this by repeating several times they had never even heard of the place let alone had visited it previously.

I am not a geologist, so I could only marvel at the site and wonder how it was formed. The rock looked like a cross between granite and crystalline concrete. It was very rough and it easily broke under modest pressure. It looked as though the rock formed initially under a sedimentary process, and then later the area was shaped by some sort of erosive force. I was compelled based on intuition and knowledge barely remembered from a geology class I took over ten years ago in college to think that it formed under the influence of water. It had several hallmarks of water erosion, especially pock marks born into the sides of boulders. But, that would suggest that a very large sea or other body of water with currents was present at the location at some point in its history, and I am not sure if there was such a body of water in the Gobi. The hypothesis therefore has an obvious flaw, and I remain ignorant of the true cause of the formations.

If there are any geologists out there reading this with ideas, please do offer comments. It was a truly interesting place.

The Other "Tolgoi"

2009-05-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I made a trip out to the eastern part of Umnugovi Aimag with my wife and a group of friends from Khankhongor Soum. Along the way we stopped at Tavan Tolgoi which is Mongolia's fantastically huge coal deposit and the other "tolgoi" after Oyu Tolgoi (the copper and gold mine near Khanbogd Soum). It was an impressive sight to behold. It was a large open pit mining operation, and although it is not even close to working at full capacity, it was amazing to see the amount of trucks coming and going from the pit. We were all greatly impressed by the size and potential scale of the project.

A few kilometers down the road we were flagged down by reporters from Channel 25 who were interviewing truck drivers and people like us about the conditions around the mine and on the road. Listening to our driver talk with the reporters I got a new sense of the uneasiness that regular people feel about the mining agreements at Tavan Tolgoi and Oyu Tolgoi. In particular when asked about the large trucks coming and going from the mine site tearing up the jeep trail used to go from the aimag center to the Chinese border, he made the comment that it was a bit frightening because the trucks were large, wipping up dangerous amounts of dust and he didn't know who the drivers were--Are they Mongolian or not? Who do they work for? Where do they come from and where do they go?

These questions struck me as reflecting a much larger worry of average people. Seeing the shear size of the Tavan Tolgoi mine site one is almost awestruck by it. So much mineral wealth. And, yet, where is it going? Who is going to reap the benefits of that wealth? Is it a very large fraud on ordinary people? If you don't even know who the drivers are, how can you know who the people making the real money are?

Of course, there are answers to these questions if one goes looking for them, but that is not what most people do. Instead in the absence of information people worry and they let their imaginations take control of what they know from experience. In Mongolia this is a particularly unproductive and insidious thing to happen. Owen Lattimore described the following in his book "Nomads and Commissars" (Oxford Press 1962) in a chapter entitled "Autonomous Mongolia: Years of Frustration" when referring to the forces that led to that nationalist movement that eventually became the socialist movement in the 1930s and 40s:

The people felt that every time there was a deal over national autonomy, over debts to Chinese merchants, over anything at all, there was also a sell-out. The big fellows came out of it with new titles, emoluments, and stipends. Then they turned around and wanted more taxes and special contributions from the people to pay for it all. They incited ordinary Mongols to massacre and beat up Chinese merchants and money-lenders, and burn their account books, but that just put the big fellows in a position to say to the Chinese, later, "Well, forget about my personal debt and I'll help you to collect the rest." (pg. 65)

There are some unsettling parallels between that passage and the present situation in Mongolia. One almost feels that it could be written today with "Chinese merchant" replaced by "mining conglomerate." It makes one think of the old adage the more things change the more they stay the same.

It is a real concern that ordinary people do not trust anyone to make the proper decision regarding the mineral wealth of the country whether it be Mongolia's political leaders or the people negotiating the mining deals for the multi-national corporations. I always understood that in an academic and abstract way, but seeing Tavan Tolgoi for the first time made me feel first hand a sense of the real worry that ordinary people have. It is the same feeling you get when you sense that a trick is being played on you. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and Mongolia loses its best chance at accumulating real wealth because people at the top are playing a game.

It is easy to become cynical and read into these feelings that nothing good can come of all this, as if the sentiment that the rich get richer; etc, is the only alternative. The mining agreements have been painfully slow to move towards fruition. On the one hand, this could mean that the "big fellows" are just trying to position themselves to become even wealthier at the expense of everyone else. On the other hand, it might mean that the worries of ordinary people like my driver to eastern Umnugovi are actually having an influence on the process. A third option is that both are occurring with a whole lot of other political machinations in between which makes the whole thing one big Gordian knot. Whatever it is, it is certainly not easy.

Mongolia and Conservatism in the US

2009-05-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I was finishing up Robert P. Newman's "Owen Lattimore and the 'Loss' of China" (UC Press 1992), and I came across the following passage:

Sokolsky reviewed the "great power of Ghengis [sic] Khan, which in the 13th Century conquered China and conquered much of Europe, east of Germany. It held Russia for a prolonged period. It held India and the Mongol Empire in India. It is Mongolia which is being revived as a power in this attempt to force upon the world the United Nations. This peril which is really greater than one imagines because, to us, the name Mongolia hardly means anything anymore and yet, out of that desert land has come this great power which at one time dominated much of the world and which can do it again if armed and given the direction and guidance that could lead to that. This, then, is our peril at the time." (pg. 507)

The passage is a transcript from a radio broadcast on ABC July 16, 1961 in which conservative columnist George Sokolsky was reacting to news that Owen and Eleanor Lattimore were in the People's Republic of Mongolia on a study tour at the same time the Kennedy administration was exploring the possibility of diplomatically recognizing Mongolia. According to Newman, a firestorm was unleashed by the coincidence of these two events among ultraconservatives, causing people like Sokolsky to make fatuous comments like the one above. Surely only the truly ignorant and uneducated at the time would have accepted the recognition of Mongolia as first step in reviving the Mongol Empire under the auspices of the United Nations?

Yet, these sorts of musings unfettered by reality and basic research seem to still find their way into conservative media in the United States. The above passage reminded me of a full page ad printed last year in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) expressing real and immediate concern that Mongolia was backsliding in its commitment to protect private property rights and democracy, implying that it was moving down a path ideologically hostile to the foreign policy of the US. True, the ad was not an editorial, so it did not necessarily represent the views of the newspaper. But, WSJ still printed the ad, which called for punitive action against Mongolia in the form of removing its Millennium Challenge Account funds if progress was not made in its allegedly deteriorating record of upholding the rights of private businessmen.

I believe the very same week an article was printed in the Washington Times painting Mongolia as a significant player in a worldwide sea born smuggling ring of illicit materials to rogue states. The Times article is an amusing read because it comes across as a similar attempt to Sokolsky's passage above to construct a conspiracy from one's readers' active imaginations without reference to common sense or basic fact. I do not contest that Mongolian ships have occasionally been used for nefarious purposes (I have not researched this, so it could be true), but taking it to the level of geo-political maneuvering sort of defies logic. I would not be surprised to learn that 9 in 10 Mongolians and an equal ratio of parliamentarians are unaware that Mongolia even has a maritime fleet. It is more likely a criminal matter than a geo-political matter. The government can hardly enforce the traffic laws in Ulaanbaatar, should we be surprised that it is unable to control who flies the Mongolian flag on international waters on occasion? The argument in the editorial seems very far fetched and construed to support a particular agenda.

This entry is not intended to be a survey of US conservative views on Mongolia but rather a reflection on historical and modern examples of the strange views on Mongolia that can make their way into print in the US. It is altogether possible that liberal outlets also have an odd predilection to present fantasy about the situation in Mongolia, but so far I have only seen the really weird stuff come from the right. It makes one wonder what the fascination with Mongolia is and why there is little effort to actually do even the most rudimentary research to support conjectures about the country. The simple answer probably involves the desires of business interests seeking to reap profits or ideologues seeking to promote particular beliefs in a world that matches that which is invented for the pages of newspapers. Understanding reality, in the case of Mongolia's reality, may not be nearly as attractive for those particular people. It's not exactly mass denial or outright lying but rather a wishful attempt to use the power of argument to bend reality to conform to the requisites of one's own agenda.

One conclusion that I have come to from reading Newman's book is that Owen Lattimore's biggest crime was actually doing research (e.g. learning local languages and customs and interviewing regular people in Inner Asia) and then reporting the truth back to power. One can see recent parallels in other geo-political hot spots in the world in which prominent people have suggested listening, showing empathy, doing field research, and reporting the truth about people who inhabit those areas to make better policy decisions. When there is big money involved, though, it is fair to surmise that it is easy for people with active imaginations to paint a picture they want policy makers and the public to believe is true. It does make one pause and consider that with $100 billion worth of copper and gold sitting in the Gobi Desert, it behooves everyone--Mongolians and foreigners with a vested interest in Mongolia alike--to be educated about the basic facts of the world and Mongolia's own history. Otherwise, even ideas as ludicrous as Sokolsky's above or the Washington Times editorialist's can potentially gain traction in the absence of credible and forceful arguments based on facts and reality.

Complain and Ye Shall Receive

2009-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to find that the stretch of the Selbe river between the US Embassy and Sky Center was cleaned up. All the trash was collected in piles and burned, and even the shrub brush was cleared. There was still a lot of plastic in the water, but overall the river was relatively clean. I am sorry I missed the actual cleaning, because I would have liked to have seen how many people it involved. Needless to say, it was a victory for the "nature"-lovers among us city-dwellers. Many thanks to whatever city officials or concerned citizens group orchestrated the clean-up effort.

Re-evaluating Chinggis Khaan

2009-04-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

Dr. Rossabi gave his lecture yesterday evening entitled: Recent Re-Evaluations of Chinggis Khaan and Khubilai Khan. Before the lecture the School of Foreign Service at the National University of Mongolia conferred on him the title of "Honary Doctor" and presented him with a doctoral robe, medal, and diploma. It was a well attended event with more than 60 people.

If anyone expected Dr. Rossabi to pull punches during his lecture out of deference to the occasion, they were proven wrong. He gave a rather candid reassessment of his book Khubilai Khan and the recent deification and "vulgarization," as he put it, of the popular image of Chinggis Khaan. It was a brave position to take given the politics involved, but he expressed his concern about exalting the positives of the Mongol Empire and attempting to conceal the negatives of the Mongol conquests. Noting that, of course, this is a response in some respect to a long history in the West of portraying the Mongols unfairly, still he insisted that honest and factual examinations of history are of paramount importance in scholarly research. The facts indicate that there were positives and negatives associated with the Mongol conquests of Eurasia.

It was not an easy argument to make, especially in Mongolia. It made me think of someone standing in front of a group of Americans and suggesting that the way forward in truly understanding American history is accepting, even embracing, the uncomfortable facts about slavery. For many people that would be tantamount to heresy, and in Mongolia suggesting that Chinggis Khaan was a great leader but he was also a ruthless and brutal leader can be very dangerous, indeed. I think Dr. Rossabi was making a very trenchant observation about the need for all people to embrace both the positives and negatives of their history in order to give lasting resilience and credibility to the image that is presented to the rest of the world. Americans who ignore the legacy of slavery risk being branded hypocrites on issues of human rights, and Mongolians who ignore the brutality of the Mongol conquests risk having people not believe the factual positives of Mongol rule.

Dr. Rossabi also added that in re-evaluating Mongolian history, he is somewhat troubled by the fact that other great Mongolians are often neglected in the national consciousness. Mongolian currency, for example, has images of Chinggis Khaan and Sukhbaatar, but not of Natsagdorj, Zanabazar, or others. But, at the same time, he said it was understandable because Chinggis Khaan and Sukhbaatar are Mongolia's great generals, and other countries also find it hard to give space to leaders of the arts and sciences. Hero worship of military leaders is a common phenomenon around the world. I remember the first time I saw a German 5 Mark bill and it had a portrait of Carl Friedrich Gauss. I was impressed to see a mathematician receiving such an honor. But, maybe Germany is one place generals are best left unremembered. In the rest of the world we have a tendency to measure greatness in terms of conquest of the physical environment as opposed to the human mind.

Overall the lecture was enjoyable, most especially for Dr. Rossabi's candid thoughts. He certainly elicited numerous questions at the end of the lecture which poured into the reception afterwards. Congratulations to you Dr. Rossabi for your award and thank you for an informative lecture.

Dr. Morris Rossabi to Give Lecture

2009-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Dr. Morris Rossabi of City University of New York and author of numerous books on Khubilai Khan and the Yuan Dynasty will be giving a lecture entitled "Recent Re-evaluations of Chinggis Khan and Khubilai Khan" at the ACMS Speaker Series this week April 23rd, 2009 at 5pm. The National University will also confer an honorary doctorate on Dr. Rossabi before the lecture for his contributions to the understanding of Mongolian history. The lecture is open to the public, and will take place in Room 305 of National University of Mongolia Building No. 5. Hope to see you there.

National Olympic Committee

2009-04-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of working for the American Center for Mongolian Studies is sometimes I get asked to participate in interesting events outside my area of expertise. This morning the National Olympic Committee asked me to present an award to Dr. Zagdsuren, the president of the committee, on behalf of the American Biographical Institute. This year the institute named Dr. Zagdsuren "Man of the Year in Medicine and Health" for his contributions to Mongolian and international sport training. I was asked to present the award as a ranking representative of the American community in Mongolia. It certainly was an honor to be asked to do it, but the best part was after the ceremony when I received a personal tour of the Mongolian Olympic History Museum, which is housed in the National Olympic Committee building.

I am a huge fan of museums, so having an opportunity to see some of the memorabilia associated with Mongolia's numerous trips to the Olympics was, to say the least, fun. The museum has display cases for each Olympics starting with 1964 in Tokyo, Japan, as well as several Asian Games. Each case has numerous medals, placards, commendations, and pictures. There is also sporting equipment presumably used by Mongolian athletes in the games and during training.

The most enjoyable and enlightening part of the tour was when we got to the 1980 Olympics display, and I somewhat innocently commented on the fact that the US boycotted the Olympics that year. I was only 3 years old at the time, so it was more of a question about history than a comment about personal recollections. Then we moved to 1984, and, of course, the Soviet Union and Mongolia boycotted those Olympics, so there was no real display to speak of. We had a laugh about this, and I think it was partly due to the fact that the world has changed so much. It is almost comical to look back now and wonder what all that boycotting was about. Sure, it was serious stuff then, but for me it is funny to think that the place I call home today was once considered by my parents and grandparents an enemy not even worth playing sports with.

Today Mongolia's Olympic team is a source of immeasurable national pride, having earned 2 silvers and 2 golds in Beijing. I was told by the National Olympic Committee representative that after the award ceremony there was to be another press conference for the handing over ceremony of the first official invitation for a Mongolian athlete to participate in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. The invitation is for cross-country skiing. Mongolia has yet to win a medal in the Winter Olympics, but with the likes of Dr. Zadgsuren overseeing the team, maybe 2010 will be Mongolia's year.

Mongolian News

2009-04-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Sometime last year I noticed on my walk to work that the sign on the Mongol News building, which I gather from other signs houses the offices of several daily newspapers, was slightly askew. At the time I thought it a nice bit of irony. Months later it is still the same, or even possibly more askew. This weekend I finally got around to taking a picture of it. Is it an accident or subconscious self-criticism? Whatever the answer, I like that it is only the "news" part that is helter-skelter.

Ethics Review for Medical Research

2009-04-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

It was brought to my attention yesterday that it is becoming increasingly difficult for international researchers to conduct medical or health research in Mongolia due to regulations introduced by the Ministry of Health which pulls the ethical review process for international projects away from the medical universities and hospitals, as it is handled for local researchers, and brings it within the purview of the ministry itself. I wonder if there are other researchers out there who have experienced difficultly in receiving the necessary permissions to conduct medical or health research in Mongolia, and whether this difficulty has been viewed as a necessary and understandable process or quite the opposite?

I am thinking here of international researchers who have received clearance from ethical review boards at reputable international universities or medical institutions, so that one might expect that the review process in Mongolia would mostly constitute an examination of the ethical practicality of conducting the research in the Mongolian context as opposed to a from scratch review of the entire proposal adding time and bureaucratic hurdles to the entire process. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this sort of approach, but at least for my money I am inclined to take Harvard Medical School's word for it that a proposed project is ethically sound, and spend the time saved ensuring that projects are executed in a manner befitting the context.

I am curious if the ministry's approach is the from scratch approach and whether it is effective. Or, is it something altogether different? Let me know if you have stories to share.

Garbage in Ulaanbaatar

2009-04-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

I recently saw in a news item that the mayor of Ulaanbaatar has decided to get tough on the garbage problem in the city. His solution struck me as a bit curious. He wants to recruit private business in the effort to clean up the streets, presumably by better enforcing or encouraging responsible disposal of trash. This may be a fair solution to one aspect of the trash problem, but I certainly hope it is not considered the panacea for the problem.

It has been striking this spring since the snow and ice has melted to notice just how much trash there is in the city. The other day I was looking out my apartment window at a group of new mothers standing and chatting while rocking their babies, and I noticed that they were standing among trash. It was everywhere. Plastic bags, bottles, broken glass, bones, you name it, and it was there. The Selbe River is not much better. This river which runs north to south past the US embassy and the Sky Center is looking especially polluted and trashy this spring. Now, it is possible that businesses are dumping their trash up stream or near the playground by my apartment building, but it seems more likely the trash is coming from poor sanitation services or households disinclined to properly dispose of waste. In my neighborhood, at least, it seems primarily to be a household and individual problem rather than a private business one.

As a person who utilizes the Selbe River as one of only a handful of precious green spaces left in the city, I certainly feel motivated to help out in doing my part to clean up that space, as well as the playground behind my apartment building. But, I don't exactly feel empowered to do it. For one, even if I did take it upon myself to clean up the Selbe, it would be a Quixotic pursuit at best. There is just too much trash for one person to collect. Another reason is that I am not sure what I would do with the trash once I collected it. I am sure my apartment manager would soon get irritated if I filled up the trash shoot with garbage from the river. Not to mention, I am not even sure if my apartment manager properly disposes of our trash, too!

So, I hope the mayor's office does in fact get tough on cleaning up the city, but I think part of the solution should involve getting private citizens empowered to make a positive contribution to the effort. Whether it's walking the extra five steps to the garbage can on the street to dispose of a ice cream wrapper, or it's forming groups of neighbors to clean up areas that we all live and play in, offering practical ways for disposing of this garbage once it is collected. This stuff does not happen automatically, so someone needs to take the lead role in organizing households and individuals to take the trash problem seriously. Otherwise, we are going to be buried alive in trash in this city.

Priorities

2009-04-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

At the risk of commenting on a contentious issue that I know little of nor hold a strong opinion about, I had to chuckle this week when I saw Parliament's spring session agenda. The Oyu Tolgoi mining agreement was 12th on the agenda, pushed down the list by higher priorities like a bill on competition (#4) and a bill on restricting the use of plastic bags (#6). Honestly, every bill up for debate in the range 1-11 is probably of great importance, even #4 and #6, but the list does make me question what Parliament's priorities are. I am making the distinction here between something being important and something being a priority. Priorities are by definition important, but they are focused on at the expense of other important things in order to get something accomplished. If one tries to do all things, one often ends up doing nothing. Prioritizing saves us from our over ambitious selves.

Of course, there is a flip side to this. Possibly Parliament has put things on the agenda first that are relatively uncontroversial and easy to decide on so that by the time they reach #12, #13 (Motherland Fund), and #14 (Bill on gas funds), for example, which have a much greater risk of being unresolved this session, everyone can look back and say, "What do you mean we did nothing? We got 11 items resolved during the session!"

Or, there is the possibility that #12 is just far enough away to be unreachable but still appear within reach, punting the issue for another session. As an uninformed plastic bag user I may be unaware of a very powerful tote bag lobby in Mongolia that will stop at nothing to mire the debate on plastic bag usage for weeks. Nevertheless, seems like an unlikely and strange tactic to me for numerous reasons, but this is one political issue that has become surprising for its inability to really surprise anyone anymore. If a tactic is possible, it has, is, or will be tried on this issue. At least it sometimes seems that way with all the stakeholders.

This is the wondrous joy of analyzing politics. Is there method in the madness or is everyone completely mad? Part of the fun and part of the problem is the rest of us speculating which it is.

National Museum and Presidential Politics

2009-04-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went to the National Museum this weekend in search of a new display which contains artifacts discovered in Khotont Soum in Arkhangai Aimag. Khotont is where I spent my Peace Corps days, and I had numerous opportunities while living there to hike through areas with Turkish era monuments and artifacts. Our visit to the museum was a sort of expression of local pride. The soum is right on the southern edge of the Orkhon Valley, and in recent years more and more archaeologists have begun venturing into the soum looking for more evidence to understand the intricacies of life on the steppe in the first millennium. Alas, we did not find the display, but we did find that the museum has undergone significant changes over the last year.

Many of the display halls have been renovated and display cases for the most part are very nicely arranged. I have always been a fan of the national costume hall, and I was pleased to see that it had been renovated and, in fact, the museum is adding more costumes to the display cases. But, among the many changes, the most interesting change was the 20th Century History hall which was the last display area before exiting the museum. It has transformed into the Democratic and Free Market Transition hall with displays of protests in the early 1990s, economic and social changes throughout the last two decades, and commemoration of individuals who took part in bringing about the change. Throughout the hall there were speakers pumping in sounds of speeches at rallies, the noises of crowds, and, of course, the national anthem.

I asked the museum worker when the hall was changed. She indicated that the Democratic Party or Democratic Union (she wasn't sure who) gave money for the renovation a few years ago. It must have occurred recently, though, because my last visit to the museum in June 2008 still had the old display cases. I thought the hall was a great improvement over the previous hall, and it included some really interesting information like a satellite image of Ulaanbaatar with marks indicating where underground pro-democracy youth movements operated in the 80s and the official declarations for acquiring personal passports under the law of the Mongolian People's Republic and present day democratic Mongolia.

This weekend was the start of the presidential campaign season in Mongolia, and it was somewhat fitting to make the "discovery" of the new hall at the museum this very weekend. The presidential race will be a rematch of the 2005 race. There might be a lot to be cynical about with that fact. However, the museum did remind me, at least, that a lot of pride remains in Mongolia about the county's history and future. These are not easy choices to make and these are not easy times in Mongolia (if ever there were), but people in general seem to remain with an overall positive frame of mind. This belief was reaffirmed as we passed Zorig's statue after leaving the museum and we saw that someone had put a string of flowers around his neck. The ideal is alive and well in the minds of people even if the execution is sometimes flawed in reality.

ACMS Annual Meeting

2009-04-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

I just arrived in Mongolia after attending the ACMS annual meeting in Chicago. Each year the ACMS holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the Association of Asian Studies annual conference. The windy city is home to a significant population of Mongolian expatriates. This was rather fortuitous, because representatives from the Mongolian Cultural Center were able to draw on the local performing arts community to organize musical performances that followed the meeting. Approximately 100 people were on hand for the meeting which featured standard protocol such as acceptance of the previous meeting's minutes, as well as reports on the ACMS' activities during the year. Once the meeting was adjourned and the musical performances complete, the attendees were treated to an exhibit of Owen Lattimore's photos taken during trips to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang in the 1930s and Mongolian People's Republic in the 1960s and a poster session with scholars conducting research in Mongolia. The Mongolian Cultural Center also provided buuz, boiled meat, and salad for those interested in sampling the culinary aspects of Mongolia.

The annual meeting is always a great time to touch bases with the wider community of scholars and lay people interested in Mongolia. Because of the large Mongolian community in Chicago, this year also attracted a lot of new people who had not previously known about the ACMS and its programs.

Next year the annual meeting will be held in Philadelphia which is only a few hours away from Washington, so we expect we'll have another large turn out for the meeting. It should be a very enjoyable event just like this year's meeting.

Identity in a Globalized World

2009-03-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

A confluence of events has made me ponder the concept of identity in our ever more globalized world. Last week Lucy Rees gave an interesting lecture on her research on the cinematic style of Mongolian film and the use of music within movies. She posed the question of how one might define a Mongolian film, and what were the minimum requisites for a film to become "Mongolian." Do the actors need to be Mongolian? Does the director need to be Mongolian? Does the theme need to be Mongolian? All of the above or more?

These questions were answered with another interesting question challenging the sentiment behind the original question, which was how to define the boundary where a person's perspective crosses over from being "authentic" to "foreign," to posit whether even the concept of filmmaking is foreign regardless of the people involved because cameras are not indigenous to the steppe. This question is not trivial, because the question of perspective is very important to great deal of people. A movie about American life, especially if critical, is more likely to be received as "authentic" by Americans if it is produced by someone Americans identify as authentically "American." The case for Mongolia is no different, and that is part of the reason Lucy posed her questions. But, the question that resulted from her questions added another level of complexity to the idea of authenticity and cultural identity.

I came across a blog post entitled: A Few Points about Debate. The author of the post examines the difference between black-and-white thought and black-and-white language. The former is something an open-minded and curious person tries to avoid, but the author argues that the latter is something that is used in debate and conversation to make conveying complex ideas more expedient. It is left to the listener to unpack those ideas and finesse out the greater complexities or to see the emphasis black-and-white language puts on certain points to convey a message but not necessarily to state an absolute truth.

This idea along with some other things I have observed in public debate recently and in a few books I have read has made me think about how difficult it is to discuss the idea of identity in the globalized world. The concept is complex and intricate, but it is also one that stirs up a lot of passion for some people. If we are inclined to mistake black-and-white language for black-and-white thinking, then we are bound to end up not really unpacking the full complexity of the questions authenticity and identity bring up.

The boundary becomes a bit blurred. If a filmmaker raised in Ulaanbaatar makes a film about rural life in Bayanhongor, is this an authentic film? From one perspective it is, because someone might see that the filmmaker is Mongolian and its about a Mongolian topic. From another perspective a person might suggest that maybe its not authentic, because the filmmaker grew up mostly in Russia, lives in Ulaanbaatar only part of the year, and has never actually lived in the countryside. Who is correct here? I am not sure that is even an appropriate question, because it is not really about being correct or incorrect. It is far too complex for that.

These are ideas that in other contexts seem both complicated and contridictory. Is Eric Clapton a real blues musician? Is a McDonald's in New Delhi American eventhough it has a Hindu menu? Are CDs and CD players Japanese? If not, then what are they? With so many cultures and so many traditions coming together and influencing one another, it is becoming increasingly hard to think about cultural identity and authenticity in black-and-white terms.

This is especially interesting in Mongolia because in the last 20 years the country has once again become a crossroads of ideas and identities. Defining what is authentically Mongolian from a literal or absolute stand point is bound to end in contridictions. Mongolia historically has been a place with such talent at absorbing new ideas and modifying them to suit the needs of individuals and groups, that it is often difficult to find things that are, from a literal sense, authentically Mongolian. This is not a bad thing. The same could be said about the United States, and yet there is a sense of identity and authenticity that allows most people most of the time to say "That's American." The same is true for Mongolia.

Identity is ultimately a malleable concept. Something that on an individual level changes over one's lifetime and on an societal level changes over generations. Authenticity is inexcricably linked to identity, because things are not authentic unless they project elements that coincide with a particular identity. A Mongolian film must meet certain criteria in order for people to accept it as a Mongolian film. The trick is that no one really knows what those criteria are, and they don't seem to be static.

In the United States this is an issue that remains unresolved, but a consensus more or less has evolved over the last century that the concept of "American" is not grounded in blood lines and history but rather in shared identity that forms organically in the lives of people who fall within the political boundaries of the territory called the United States of America. In a country like Mongolia where there are only 3 million people, one wonders if the concept of "Mongolian" can derive from a similar process of identity adaptation. I think it can, and it has from at least the 13th century.

This reminds me of a statement that a friend of mine once made in a lecture about Mongolian history. He said, "In Inner Mongolia, the Mongolians veiw the idea of Mongolism as something that must be preserved. In Mongolia, we veiw Mongolism in terms of the practicalities of living in a modern world." In other words, Mongolian identity in Mongolia is a dynamic process changing over time to meet the challenges of the 21st century and not a museum piece needing perservation.

I don't know if there are definitive answers to Lucy's questions or the question her questions elicited, but I do know that identity and therefore the authenticity of things produced by those who identify with one group or another is far more complex than black-and-white thinking can handle in helping us understand the world we live in. As more people come in contact and learn other languages and experience other ways of living, the whole concept of cultural identity will have to be unpacked in all its complexity to really get a sense of what things are. For now it is just something to think about.

ACMS Annual Meeting 2009

2009-03-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Chicago Ballroom VI, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers
March 27th, 2009, 7pm-11pm

This year in recognition of the 5th anniversary of the opening of the ACMS’ center in Ulaanbaatar, the ACMS has organized a special annual meeting for members and the general public in conjunction with the AAS Annual Conference in Chicago. Members are a critical aspect of the continued success of the ACMS, and this annual meeting is a way to extend our many thanks. The evening will include the annual members' meeting, a photo exhibit, poster session, musical performances, and traditional Mongolian food.

The Mongolia Cultural Center (MCC) in Washington, DC has co-organized the post-meeting events for a second year, and we thank them for their continued cooperation in providing public exposure to Mongolian culture. The Mongolia Cultural Center has organized the musical performances and food for the evening. More information is at the ACMS website: Annual Meeting.

ACMS Closed for Tsagaan Sar

2009-02-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

The ACMS will be closed from February 21-March 2 for the Tsagaan Sar holiday. Tsagaan Ssar will begin on February 25th this year for those of you outside of Mongolia. Have a wonderful Tsagaan Sar, and don't eat too many buuz.

Buddhism in Mongolia: Rebirth and Transformation

2009-02-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

Smith College will host a symposium on Mongolian Buddhism at the end of March. The main organizer of the event participated in the CIEE study seminar managed by the ACMS last summer, and I gather that the trip had some impact on the content of the symposium. Smith College is a liberal arts college for women in western Massachusetts, and it is encouraging to see that interest in Mongolia is finding its way to new corners of the world. Given the people involved, I think those interested in Buddhism and particularly Mongolian Buddhism would be disappointed to miss this event. More information is available on the Smith College website at Buddhism in Mongolia: Rebirth and Transformation. The photo on the website of the fallen statue has an amusing backstory, so those who attend the symposium should ask Jamie Hubbard to tell the story of the world's worst ger camp redeemed by warmish beer and wine.

Mamma Mia! I can still do without mutton.

2009-02-08T20:19:00.000-08:00

Recently my wife and I watched the musical movie sensation Mamma Mia!, which is a screen adaptation of the musical by the same name. Given the movie's popularity--it recently unseated Titanic for highest grossing film ever in the United Kingdom--I probably do not need to explain what the film is about. However, I would like to mention that it is a musical entirely set to the music of the Swedish pop group ABBA, and this is relevant to what I am about to write.

I was never really a fan of ABBA. There was something rather too poppy about them for my tastes. Yet, while my wife and I watched, I found myself actually tapping my foot to the music, and for days afterwards I kept humming the music in my head and sometimes out loud. I was completely surprised by the impression this movie had on me, and it led me to quip to my wife that I've spent five years in Mongolia and all I've got to show for it is a stinkin' appreciation for ABBA.

ABBA, Bonnie Em, Suzie Quatro and Chris Norman, these are all musical "sensations" that live on in Mongolia hearkening back to a much simpler and drabber period in Mongolian history. This new found appreciation for ABBA comes from me thinking what it must have been like to hear this music for the first time on bootleg tapes in the 80s when it first made its way into Mongolia. It must have sounded like the most exotic and addicting of sounds, which I think says something more about the condition of life in Mongolia at the time rather than the musical depth of the groups. ABBA is catchy. You don't have to understand the lyrics to begin to dance along, and many of the songs have simple refrains which to the snobby critic might seem fatuous but to a non-native speaker of English are easy to pick up and sing. "Waterloo! Blah-blah-blah, da blah, my Waterloo!" is a good example.

This music has a special meaning in Mongolia because it has nostalgia attached to it which you won't encounter anywhere else. Watching Mamma Mia! I began to imagine it must have been a breath of fresh air or a window into a more colorful world beyond the Soviet Union when the music first began to be traded among high school and college students in Ulaanbaatar. It was something really easy to dance to at a time when many of Mongolia's senior democratic revolutionaries and conservatives alike were young and very impressionable. My new found appreciation for ABBA has a lot to do with understanding how something as frivolous as pop songs can really have a profound effect on the world. One can imagine that Zorig, Elbegdorj, and even President Enkhbayar were inspired in some measure to change the political landscape in Mongolia by the sounds they heard from groups like ABBA and Smokey (even if it doesn't seem to inform their decision making today). It's a really odd thing to consider, but is more believable and real to me now that I am sitting writing this and humming "Stumblin' In" to myself.

It is a fact that living in Mongolia walls off many mainstream sources of music, as well as many other forms of entertainment, by the standards I grew up in. But, really that happens in any country where you have the time to begin to appreciate the local tastes because of an inability to recreate one's world of entertainment back home. Living in Mongolia has definitely stretched my appreciation of Swedish and other pop music and the nostalgic position in holds in modern Mongolia. And, yet, I can still do without mutton, so Mongolia still has a long way to go in modifying my tastes overall, I suppose. But, ABBA is one victory I will give it.

ACMS Annual Meeting - Call for Posters

2009-02-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 1, 2009
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is organizing a Mongolian Studies poster session to be held on Friday, March 27, 2009 at Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers (301 East North Water Street, Chicago, IL), in Chicago Ballroom VI, in conjunction with the ACMS' Annual Meeting.

Posters on any topic related to Mongolia are welcome. Poster presenters are required to appear at the meeting to discuss their work. Posters may be in either English or Mongolian language, and students and scholars from all countries and fields of study are invited to participate in the poster session and reception.

To propose a poster for the session, please send a brief abstract (no more than 250 words) to Enkhbaatar Demchig at info@mongoliacenter.org before March 1, 2009. Posters will be accepted on a rolling basis. For more information visit: www.mongoliacenter.org/poster.

Senegal: The Movie

2009-02-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

One of the participants in the recent Council for American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) conference in Senegal put together a video montage of our time in the country. The video gives the impression that we spent most of the time dancing, which is really not too far from the truth.

Russia's Crown Jewels

2009-01-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Now for some news from the weird. Chinggis' tomb may have a competitor for the title of most elusive (and likely non-existent) treasure in Mongolia. According to a LA Times story, a LA socialite is convinced that the last Russian Czar's crown jewels are buried somewhere in the Gobi Desert. It is a family legend that includes bandits, a map, and failed attempts to recover the hidden booty. I think the story pretty much speaks for itself, so I won't write anymore. Read the full LA Times story by clicking here: Russian Crown Jewels.

Umnugovi Baseline Study

2009-01-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

The Umnugovi Aimag (South Gobi Province) government held an unveiling ceremony today for an economic and environmental baseline study conducted in the region during 2008. The study was funded by the Oyu Tolgoi project and included the participation of several local research institutions and scholars. More information about the study is available on the Umnugovi Aimag website at www.umnugovi.mn. An executive summary of the report and survey maps based on the report data are also available in the ACMS library.

Internship Opportunity

2009-01-26T00:12:00.000-08:00

The Asian Foundation (TAF) in Mongolia has begun advertising its summer associate (internship) program for the third consecutive year. This is a great program that TAF started in 2007 as part of its initiatives to promote increased public dialog about responsible mining and the preservation of Mongolia's ecology. It's one of those programs that I wish had been around when I was a graduate student. Time in the field, professional experience, and an opportunity to get one's hands dirty. More information about the program is available on the ACMS website www.mongoliacenter.org.

Evolutionaries

2009-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

The ACMS is the product of many different people and organizations coming together and trying to build a place where international and Mongolian scholars can easily interact and participate in world class research and study activities. Our Deputy Director is fond of saying that "at the ACMS we make evolutionary progress not revolutionary progress." I like this expression very much because it really describes the steady and consistent progress the ACMS has made in the last 5 years in striving to reach the goal of being a world class academic institution.

This is no better exemplified than by the steady growth of the ACMS Library. In January 2006 the ACMS moved to Building No. 5 of the National University of Mongolia to a room the size of an average American home's master bedroom (see image above). In less than a year the ACMS outgrew that space, and subsequently we moved a floor up in the same building to two rooms with about 1,200 square ft. of space (see image below). It took yet another year for the ACMS to begin to out grow its new space. Currently the ACMS provides services to approximately 250 people per week, the majority of them students at the National University of Mongolia. But, the center also serves dozens international scholars per week--a number that has grown as more and more scholars from all countries discover the excellent library and services provided by the ACMS.

Looking ahead the ACMS and its partners dream of a much larger center that will become an internationally recognized institution and local leader in promoting academic research. Each day the dream slowly evolves into something real.

New Library Acquisition

2009-01-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

The ACMS Library recently acquired a 22 volume set of Qing Dynasty documents spanning the 17th and 18th centuries concerning Mongolia. The documents are written in Mongol script, Manchu, and Tibetan, and they come from a collection in the Chinese National Archives.

The set was purchased using funds from the ACMS Research Fellowship. The program allows each fellow up to $2,000 to purchase materials for the ACMS Library to be used for their research.

CAORC Meeting In Senegal

2009-01-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

The ACMS is a member of a consortium called the "Council for American Overseas Research Centers," otherwise known as CAORC. I recently returned from the CAORC US & Overseas Directors meeting which was held January 4-5 with an extension tour January 6-9 in Senegal. The West Africa Research Center (WARC) hosted the conference at its center located in Dakar. Approximately 50 people attended the conference to discuss future collaborative work among the member centers as well as other institutions with area studies programs. CAORC organizes these meetings every 2-2.5 years, and they are a great opportunity for the member centers' directors to share ideas and learn about how other centers operate.

CAORC has been instrumental in securing funding for several programs and activities at the ACMS. The US-Mongolia Summer Field Research Program has been funded with CAORC support each year since its inception, and much of the computer hardware available in the center was purchased using CAORC grant funds. The Digital Library for International Research (DLIR) is also a CAORC project which provides the ACMS, along with other member centers, with an online catalog for its library.

More information about CAORC, its programs, and the programs of member centers is available at www.caorc.org.

ACMS gearing up for a busy 2009

2008-12-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

As 2008 comes to a close, we at the ACMS are gearing up for a busy 2009. In the coming year the center will offer three different kinds of fellowships (dissertation research, field research, and language), host 2 study seminar groups, unveil a new online language resource website, conduct a intensive summer language program, and hire a new Resident Director for the office, just to name a few of the bigger items on our work plan.

It is still not clear whether the cost cutting and fiscal measures being taken at universities in the United States as a result of the financial crisis will affect the number of US scholars coming to Mongolia in 2009. Mongolia remains an expensive place to travel to but relatively inexpensive place to conduct research or study, so time will tell whether the lure of this fascinating country will overcome financial obstacles.

The center will close for a brief period from December 31-January 5th, and then everyone will back to work to get started on the list of "to-dos" for 2009.

Anod Bank under Mongol Bank control

2008-12-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

The big news in Mongolia is that Mongol Bank has taken control of Anod Bank because it has surfaced that the bank is insolvent. Anod is one of the more prominent mid-tier national banks, and its fall may be a harbinger for other banks like it.

As reported in the UB Post, the accounting reports Anod Bank submitted to Mongol Bank over the last few years appear to have been "cooked" as they say in accounting parlance. The government is now working to ensure that customers with deposits in the bank recover their money. Recently parliament passed a resolution authorizing the government to back all banking deposits in the country with state assets, creating an FDIC like safety net for depositors. Anod will put the validity of this resolution to the test.

The extent to which the global financial crisis has affected the Mongolian economy is still difficult to gauge. The steep decline in copper prices has been a complete game changer for the Mongolian government as huge deficits have appeared in the state budgets and revenue from Erdenet mine has been cut in half. Construction has stopped on many buildings, and it is rumored that this is due to the fact that people simply cannot get mortgage loans to purchase apartments already on the market. Prices on consumer goods appear to be declining, but the last report I saw still showed a very high inflation rate. And, inexplicably the tugrik has depreciated against the dollar by more than 100 tugriks, causing wide speculation about the cause.

The three major Mongolian banks Khan Bank, Xac Bank, and Trade and Development Bank appear to be weathering the storm so far. Most credit has apparently dried up, and loans that are still available are at very high interest rates. According to Khan Bank's PR department these banks hold no international paper, so they are not affected by the subprime mortgage losses directly. However, the overall credit crunch means that it is difficult for them to secure new financing for loans in Mongolia, making it difficult for them to secure new income through interest payments.

Only time will tell if the global economic crisis will claim more financial victims in Mongolia.

Job Opening Starting June 2009 - ACMS Resident Director

2008-12-04T16:16:00.001-08:00

The ACMS is currently seeking a Resident Director to take over the management of the UB office starting sometime after June 2009. I will continue to be involved in the ACMS in other capacities after the new Resident Director takes the reins.

My wife and I are tentatively planning to move to Madison, WI to begin academic programs in fall 2009. There are not many places you can move from and look a Badger in the eye saying "Your winters are downright tropical." But, Mongolia happens to be one of those places. I look forward to saying that often in Wisconsin.

At any rate, those interested in applying for the Resident Director position should take a look at the full announcement on the ACMS website. Also, please send on the announcement to people you think might be qualified for the position.

Cold has Arrived

2008-12-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I wrote on this blog that it was unusually warm for Mongolia in November. This week the weather seems to be making up for lost time. On Tuesday the temperature dropped to -26 F (-32 C) for a nighttime low, and it only made it up to -9 F (-22 C) for a daytime high on Wednesday. Brrrr! It's currently -20 F (-29 C) and snowing.

This level of cold does funny stuff, mostly in terms of freezing things to other things. Metal glasses freeze to noses, tear drops freeze to eyelids, and, the old classic, beards become frosty on walks to work.

Either you love the cold or hate it. I am one of those people who loves the cold, so entering my fifth winter in Mongolia I am not altogether disappointed with the change in weather.

Intensive Mongolian Language Program

2008-11-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

FELLOWSHIP DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2009
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) invites applications from students and scholars wishing to participate in an eight week Intensive Mongolian Language Program from June 15 to August 14, 2009 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The program is designed to develop intermediate to advanced language skills, and all applicants must have the equivalent of at least one year of Mongolian language study experience by the time the program begins. Fellowship opportunities are available. The program is open to students and faculty from all countries, but certain conditions do apply for fellowships. More information about the program at www.mongoliacenter.org/language.

Technological Advances

2008-11-26T19:40:00.000-08:00

This week the ACMS made several technological leaps forward in terms of its computer network. First, we replaced an old windows server that was truly on its last leg with a smaller, faster router. Second, we purchased a new server and loaded it with a Linux operating system (Ubuntu 8.10) for better functionality and security. The new server will perform many functions, but as of right now it is acting as a reliable way for the office computers to share files. Third, we replaced our old Canon photocopier with a newer, sleeker model. It has network printing with the works in terms of finishing documents, so now all computers in the reading room and office can print double-sided and collated if the desire should strike anyone.

All of these changes are due to a grant from the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, and we are grateful for the support, as well as the ability to provide our patrons with much better service. Incidentally, we donated the old photocopier to the School of Foreign Service Library at the National University of Mongolia, so they are also able to provide their patrons better service, too.

Earlier in the year the ACMS purchased new computers for the office with funds from the Council for American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). At that time, we installed special software that resets the operating systems of the reading room computers to their default settings each time a patron logs off. This means that all files, good or malicious, are purged from each system each time they reboot, which further means that the risk of viruses is practically zero on the ACMS computers. It makes the reading room and office computers some of the safest public computers in Mongolia.

Next on the agenda is figuring out how to fix the very slow internet connection speed problem. More information on that as it develops.

ACMS Field Research Fellowship Program

2008-11-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2009
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), with funding support from the Council for American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), is pleased to announce the fourth year of the ACMS US-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program to support student field research in Mongolia in summer or fall 2009. The program will provide $500-$3000 grants to approximately 5-10 students from US or Mongolian universities to conduct academic field research in Mongolia between May and October 2009. Student applicants can be at an advanced undergraduate, masters or pre-dissertation doctoral level, and all fields of study are eligible. Applicants must be either US or Mongolian citizens or permanent residents currently enrolled full-time in a university or college in the United States or Mongolia. Students graduating in spring 2009 are eligible to apply.

More information at www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship.

Political Data and Surveys

2008-11-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

I was reminded this week that not everyone knows about the Sant Maral Foundation in Mongolia. This is a non-profit organization that collects political data and conducts surveys of the Mongolian population. Its most well known survey is the POLITBAROMETER which surveys approximately 1200 randomly selected individuals in Ulaanbaatar and the countryside on a series of questions related to politics and social conditions in the country. One example question is "How you evaluate your nearest future?" to which a 75% of respondents chose "Optimistic" in the most recent survey. Another question is "Do you support the creation of coalition government?" to which almost 60% of respondents answered "Yes." This survey, as well as the many others Sant Maral produces, provide a very interesting glimpse into the social and political opinions of ordinary people.

Sant Maral has a website at http://santmaral.com/ which is arguably a bit spartan in terms of information. The foundation has not taken to publishing its survey results online, but there seems to be every indication that they will provide survey results if requested by e-mail or in-person. The ACMS receives regular survey results via e-mail because it is a member of the Business Council of Mongolia.

Many of their surveys date back to the early 1990s, so they represent an important wealth of data about attitudes since the dissolution of the Communist government. If a researcher is doing work on politics or perceptions of social change in Mongolia, then that researcher should definitely contact Sant Maral.

October Revolution

2008-11-07T01:43:00.000-08:00

Today is October 25th on the Julian Calendar, which was the calendar in use in Russia when the Bolshevik Revolution occurred. It is still a national holiday of sorts in Mongolia. It once was more important as a holiday, but today it is probably more akin to Armed Forces Day in the United States--very easy to forget about if someone doesn't remind you about it on the day. The ACMS staff observed the holiday by eating a kilo of mandarins, which I suspect is not the traditional method of observance. To each his own in the new Mongolia.

Historical Election

2008-11-05T20:45:00.001-08:00

As an expatriate US citizen it is still not clear how the outcome of the US elections will affect my life. Mongolia has had exceptional affection for the United States for two decades, and President Bush's visit to Mongolia in 2005 ensured that Mongolians continue to have a better opinion of the president than most Americans. I first came to Mongolia in 2002, and it has always been a place where there has been no fear or shame in being an American, which I have heard from others is not often the case in other countries. This is partly due to the fact that Americans and Mongolians seem to understand each other at a visceral level. I often remark that the only things separating the average Ohioan from the average Bayankhongorian is a language and 10,000 miles. Although different, Mongolian culture and American culture are very compatible. If you understand what makes an Ohioan tick, then you probably can also figure out what makes a Bayakhongorian tick, or vise-versa.

From a political stand point, the acceptance speech that President-Elect Obama gave last night could potentially have special significance for Mongolians as well. Mongolians have a much more optimistic view of things than one might suspect at first blush. The riot of the summer provides a good case in point. Instead of that event being the beginning of a decline in Mongolian politics, thus far it has proven to be a watershed in emphasizing the need for politicians to move towards broader purpose in their work. This is not to say things have been rosy, just that incremental progress continues to be made. I could hear President-Elect Obama's words echoing in some of the things that have occurred since July--the argument that when you give people a chance to surprise you in a positive way, they will. Of course, it is not so simple, but the ingredients for positive surprise are just as much entrenched in the ethos of Mongolian society as it is in the US, and the democratic process is an integral part of making this manifest itself in tangible ways.

One can never predict the future, but it is affirming that the United States potentially will lead the world again by positive example, and that maybe, just maybe this idea that anything is possible if you work for it will have a positive influence on the politics of Mongolia, too.

It's November, and it's not cold!

2008-11-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

It's November, and it's not cold--by Mongolia standards anyway. This is will be my fifth winter in Mongolia, and the autumn is indicating this will be the mildest winter yet. It is amazing how warm it is outside. It is supposed to be close to 8 degrees C (46 degrees F) by the end of this weekend. That's astonishing for November. Of course, November isn't traditionally considered a winter month in most of the world, so above freezing temperatures might not seem that astonishing to someone who has not experienced winter in Mongolia. In a country where -40 degree temperatures in the dead of winter are not unusual, however, getting to that point requires the autumn months to be somewhat colder than the rest of the world. If it is not, then it's not out of the question to assume that January is probably going to be mild, too. We'll see.

To check out the forecast for Ulaanbaatar in the coming days, click on the forecast widget in the right-hand margin of this blog.

US Elections

2008-11-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

It's already November 4th in Mongolia, and polls should begin opening in the United States sometime this evening. As a political junkie who cannot seem to get enough of the twists and turns this campaign season has brought, I will be anxious over the next 24 hours as everyone waits for the first results to come in.

Some might ask if the ACMS has done anything over the last year to raise awareness among Mongolians about how the political process works in the United States, especially in light of the historic nature of this year's election. The short answer is no. The longer answer is given the mission of the ACMS (i.e. Promoting scholarship in Mongolia), it would make far more sense to focus energy on raising awareness among international observers about the political process in Mongolia, which to some extent we have done over the year. But, in general, the ACMS only gets involved in politics when a researcher comes to the center investigating a political issue, which again more often than not involves understanding the political issues of the day in Mongolia.

Nevertheless there have been a few opportunities to discuss the US political system at the ACMS. In 2007 we actually had two Speaker Series lectures in a row that dealt with the political process and campaigning in the United States. Bob Betty of Washburn University gave a lecture on the use of tv advertisements in US politics with special emphasis on the state of Kansas. Then a week later Dale Lawton, who earned his PhD in government at the University of Virginia and was a Foreign Service Officer at the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar at the time, gave a lecture on ethics and social responsibility (or lack thereof) in campaigns in US presidential races. Both lectures were based on academic research each had done, and they provided a very interesting look into the mechanics of campaigns in the US system.

To do my part in engaging in the American democratic process, I will take Nov. 5th off to participate in the election day gathering for US citizens and Mongolians being sponsored and organized by the US Embassy. It turns out that the polls will begin closing about 9 in the morning here, so everyone attending will be able to see the different states and races being called in real time. It should be a very interesting day, and a rare opportunity to discuss the US political system.

Title VI 50th Anniversary Conference

2008-10-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

Title VI of the Higher Education Act is congressional authority intended to encourage and promote international programs, foreign language acquisition, and cultural exchange at institutions of higher learning in the United States. If you have an international program at your institution, chances are some or all of its public funding comes from this piece of legislation. The ACMS is a recipient of Title VI funds through the US Department of Education. Every four years the ACMS competes with other centers around the world for a grant to cover core administrative funds through the American Overseas Research Centers (AORC) program. The ACMS was selected for funding in 2002 which allowed for the Center in Ulaanbaatar to be opened in 2004, and it was selected again in 2006 which has allowed the center to begin expanding its programs.

Title VI covers the Fulbright-Hays program which is most familiar to people for its Fulbright Fellowship. However, Fulbright-Hays covers numerous international programs which include overseas seminars, lectureships, and foreign language learning. The ACMS will host its first Fulbright-Hays seminar abroad in the summer of 2009. This seminar will bring sixteen k-12 educators to Mongolia for three weeks to learn about life in the country.

As a recipient of Title VI funding, the ACMS will also participate in the 50th anniversary conference celebrating Title VI programs. The conference is scheduled for March 19-21, 2009 in Washington, DC. Title VI is an extremely important part of the US educational system, and it is good to know that effort is being made to mark the 50th year of its existence. For more information about the conference visit http://titlevi50th.msu.edu/.

CIEE Seminar 2009

2008-10-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

As noted in a previous post on this blog, the ACMS will host another faculty abroad seminar organized and administered by CIEE during the summer of 2009. The ACMS hosted a group of 12 US faculty members in June 2008, and the seminar offered numerous opportunities to learn about historical and contemporary aspects of Mongolian society firsthand. Below are a couple of photos from the 2008 seminar. For more information about the 2009 seminar and how to apply, please visit http://www.ciee.org/IFDS/seminars/mongolia.aspx.

ACMS Research Fellowship Program

2008-10-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), with funding support from the Henry Luce Foundation, is pleased to announce the second year of the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) Research Fellowship Program. The ACMS Research Fellowship Program annually supports three fellows to conduct up to 12-months of doctoral dissertation or post-doctoral research in Mongolia on topics in the Social Sciences or Humanities. Previous Mongolian Studies experience is not required, but projects should enhance knowledge of Mongolia and the Mongols within relevant academic disciplines or fields of study. Projects that link research conducted in Mongolia to research in other parts of Asia or across academic fields are especially encouraged.

Fellowship awards will include travel expenses to and from Mongolia, an accommodation and food allowance, and a stipend to cover research expenses. Fellows will also have the opportunity to take intensive Mongolian language courses, select resources for inclusion in the ACMS Library, and participate in an annual academic seminar in Mongolia that will bring together international, regional and local scholars and students.

Research work under this program must begin between September 2009 and March 2010, and last for a continuous 6-12 months. Fellowship recipients will be based in Mongolia for the duration of their fellowship, but research travel in the broader region is encouraged. Dissertation fellows must have an approved dissertation proposal prior to the start of their research work under the fellowship, and Post-Doctoral fellows must begin their fellowship work within seven years of the granting of their doctoral degree. Fellowship recipients must be US or Canadian citizens attending or recently graduated from a university in the US or Canada.

For more information on the program, including an Application Package and the General Terms and Conditions of the awards, visit the ACMS website at: http://www.mongoliacenter.org/fellowship.

Deadline for receipt of complete application packages is February 15, 2009.
Awards will be announced in April 2009.

Questions about the program should be directed to info@mongoliacenter.org, to phone (360) 356-1020, or to the ACMS office in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Funding support for the ACMS Research Fellowship Program is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. For more information on the Henry Luce Foundation, please visit: http://www.hluce.org/home.aspx.

Xiongnu Archaeology Conference

2008-10-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

October 17th and 18th the leading international scholars in Xiongnu archaeology and other related fields of research came together for a rare opportunity to exchange research findings and discuss ideas about the future development of Xiongnu archaeology in Mongolia and related sites in China, Russia, and the Korean peninsula. Over thirty Scholars from China, France, Germany, Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States gave 20 minute presentations on a variety of topics from exotic materials in Xiongnu burial sites to isotope analysis of animal teeth to measure livestock mobility.

Discussants summarized each presentation session, offering new perspectives on where research findings confirmed and contradicted each other. Each session brought interesting revelations, underscoring the past communication difficulties caused by language barriers among numerous scholars from different countries working on related research questions. The conference was intended to create a baseline of knowledge across all international scholars working in the field, and it seemed to achieve this objective numerous times over the two days.

The conference packet is available on the ACMS website at www.mongoliacenter.org/docs/xiongnu/xiongnu_packet.pdf. The conference organizers plan to publish a volume of the conference proceedings in the summer of 2009. Below are a few pictures from the conference.

The Search for Chinggis' Tomb Continues

2008-10-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

A colleague at University of Redlands brought an article at Science Daily to my attention over the weekend about a new attempt to locate Chinggis Khan's tomb using the latest in "non-invasive techniques" which include ground penetrating radar. The most interesting aspect of the article for me is a line which reads, "Lin says he's hoping to collaborate with the Mongolian government and national universities, through the help of Amaraa and Bayarsihan Baljinnayam — siblings from what he endearingly calls his 'Mongolian family.'" I may be misinterpreting this line, but it suggests to me that the researchers may be mistakenly assuming that involving a couple of Mongolians in the research team who will rationally and logically explain the project to people in Mongolia is the same thing as involving the nation of Mongolia in the project.

There is a significant number of people in Mongolia who do not want the tomb to be found, and each expedition has been wrought with political rows over whether anyone should be given permission to make the search. For some the tomb is a sacred place that Chinggis' followers went to great lengths to hide. They believe no one has a right to find it, least of all non-Mongolians. To others, the whole search smacks of tomb raiding premised on the flimsiest of scientific pretenses. Would finding the tomb provide enough scientific and historical illumination to justify the cost of desecrating a sacred place and alienating a large swath of the Mongol population? This is a question very much open to debate, especially and ironically without knowing what is contained in the tomb.

The methods employed by the researchers as described in the article should raise some new controversies. After all, they do not need to come Mongolia to conduct their search, which means that the Mongolian government and Mongolian people are somewhat limited in what they can do to influence the search. In a situation like this I can see where the politics involved could potentially become even more intense than seen in the past as the methods might seem to some as completely side stepping the sovereign rights of Mongolians to decide who searches for what buried in Mongolian soil. I hope for Dr. Lin's benefit that his "Mongolian family" is astute at the fine art of politics, because I could foresee this project angering many more people than it pleases, especially if they reach their goal of identifying a possible location for Chinggis' tomb without ever stepping foot on Mongolian soil.

NUM's First Endowed Chair

2008-10-19T22:30:00.001-07:00

On Friday morning the Asia Foundation held a ceremony to sign the first agreement to create an endowed chair position for a faculty member at the National University of Mongolia. The official name of the chair position is the "Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology," and the Asia Foundation awarded University of Pennsylvania alumnus Dr. Boldgiv as the first holder of the position. The endowment is valued at approximately $100,000, and Dr. Boldgiv will receive research support throughout the year through interest income generated from the endowment.

This endowed chair is an important development in higher education and research in Mongolia, and I am excited by the Asia Foundation's achievement and the Taylor family's generosity. It sets a precedent that I hope other organizations and donors (the ACMS included) can build upon and expand. Dr. Boldgiv represents a new generation of young scholars who have received PhDs from prestigious universities and have returned to assist in the further development of higher education and scholarship in Mongolia. Privately endowed chairs and fellowships have historically provided outstanding US scholars invaluable opportunities to expand the frontier of knowledge, because private funding opportunities have freed scholars from the vagaries of institutional politics and intrigue that can often inhibit important academic inquiry. Dr. Boldgiv, no less than US scholars, has now been given the same academic freedom with this endowed chair. I hope to see more Mongolian scholars earn this same freedom in the future.

ACMS Hosts Rice University Interns

2008-10-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Over the summer the ACMS hosted two interns from Rice University. Their experiences are described in a recent press release from the Rice University News and Media Relations Office. ACMS Executive Director Charles Krusekopf is a Rice University Alumnus, and Rice University is an Institutional Member of the ACMS. Mongolia is an amazing place to participate in an internship, and the ACMS works hard to facilitate opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

For more information about the Rice students' experiences visit http://www.media.rice.edu/, and for more information about the ACMS Internship Program visit the Internship Program section on the ACMS website.

Visa-less Transfers Were Never Gone

2008-10-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

A correction from an earlier post on this blog: Visas are not required to make transfers in China within 24 hours of arriving, which is contrary to the information I posted a few weeks ago. I was misinformed then, and a very nice, smiling immigration officer at Beijing international airport informed me of this last week when I tried to use my Chinese visa to transfer from terminal 3 to terminal 2 where MIAT flights depart. Thanks a lot Chinese Embassy for the bad information...and taking $130 for the effort.

It turns out, however, that the new transfer system--that is, transferring from the new international terminal (terminal 3) to the old international terminal (terminal 2)--is not much different than before when one was transferring from a MIAT flight to a flight to the US. One still goes through the diplomat passports line and receives a temporary 24 hour visa stamp, and then exits immigration. Transfer to terminal 2 via bus, and then reenter customs and immigration to check-in at the MIAT counter. If all this takes less than 24 hours to do, then one does not need a visa to transfer in China.

As always, though, don't take my word for it. Check with your nearest consulate for up-to-date rules and regulations regarding transfers through China.

ACMS Library – Collection Increases by 400

2008-10-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

The ACMS library recently received a donation of approximately 400 books, journals, and pamphlets from the family of Dr. Larry Moses who passed away during the summer. The materials were part of Dr. Moses’ personal research collection used during his career at Indiana University. These materials are currently being shipped to Mongolia, and they should be available for research in the late spring of 2009. The ACMS Board of Directors and Executive Staff would like to express their condolences for Dr. Moses’ passing and sincerest thanks for this generous contribution to the ACMS collection to the Moses family.

Xiongnu Archaeology Conference, Ulaanbaatar, Oct. 15-18

2008-10-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

This international conference endeavors to bring together all scholars, from Asia to America, actively researching in the field of Xiongnu archaeology in order to discuss old and new research questions in a focused group of both specialists and related scholars. As this event will be structured around the exchange of ideas and constructive discussion, the format will be different from most conferences. Brief lectures of 20 minutes will be organized into thematic sessions, and each session will close with discussant commentary and open discussion. We thus aim to foster new ideas and approaches for the research which has been presented by specialists in this field.

The conference will be held at the Open Society Forum conference room from 8am to 6pm each day, with tea and lunch breaks. The Open Society Forum is located adjacent to the Silk Road and Veranda restaurant building across from the Chojin Lama Monastery. For more information please contact the American Center for Mongolian Studies at (+976) 11-350-486 or info@mongoliacenter.org.

Conference Organizers:
Dr. Ursula Brosseder (Bonn University, Germany)
Bryan K. Miller, PhD Candidate (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

Sponsors:
This event is sponsored by the Silkroad Foundation in cooperation with University of Bonn, University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Archaeology, Mongolia, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, National Museum of Mongolia, and American Center for Mongolian Studies.

Registration at Conference Website:
http:/www.silkroadfoundation.org

Yili Milk Products Contaminated

2008-09-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

An e-mail is circulating here in Mongolia about a BBC story related to the recent milk contamination in China. The company implicated in the contamination allegedly is Yili milk, which is a common milk product in Mongolia. More on the story can be found at the BBC News website.

Traveling Through China

2008-09-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Post-Olympics China appears to be a more closed China than pre-Olympics China. I just spent two hours this morning standing in line to apply for a Chinese visa that will allow me to transfer from one plane to another on my way to the US. The days of visa-less transfers through China to or from Mongolia seem to be over for now. In order to transit through China, when applying for a visa in Mongolia, you need to bring your passport, visa application with passport sized photo, copy of your passport, and copy of your itinerary. If you plan to actually stay in China, I think you need bank statements and hotel reservations, too. US citizens pay $130 for a visa for regular slow service. Everyone else pays much, much less.

My natural inclination is to whine and complain about the process and the price. But, I am too aware of the world to take that too far. After all, what if I were Chinese trying to transit through the US? Would I even get a visa? I know I would have to pay $130 for the interview, and I suspect that is why US citizens, unlike everyone else, has to pay that amount for a Chinese visa. I will probably have a visa waiting for me next week, which makes complaining a bit hard given the current state of US immigration policy, which, for those of you unaware, is a complete mess. I think a Chinese citizen trying to get a visa to the US is playing game of roulette with a $130 bet on black. That is a much worse prospect than I face, which is mostly the inconvenience of standing in line for several hours (you can no longer send other people on your behalf to apply at the PRC Embassy in Mongolia).

The process for attaining a Chinese visa could change at any time, so don't take my word for it. Be sure to check with the nearest consulate or embassy website for the most up-to-date visa information. And, happy transiting.

Don't Forget to Renew Your Membership

2008-09-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

It's about that time a year in which ACMS members will begin receiving notices to renew their memberships. The ACMS bylaws state that membership runs from September 1-August 30 of each year (for you rule junkies check out Article I Section 1.05 of the bylaws). Members are an integral part of the continued success of the ACMS, and I am proud to inform you that membership reached a peak of 320 individuals just before August 30. Of course, some of those members we will lose in the coming year, but we are optimistic that by December we should be solidly at 250 or more members in good standing. This is excellent, and I hope it impresses members and non-members alike that there is such a large community of researchers and scholars committed to supporting the ACMS mission of promoting scholarship in Mongolia.

There is also a very important individual reason to renew your membership. The ACMS regularly sends out announcements to its members about conferences, fellowships, and other program opportunities. This winter members should receive information about several ACMS programs including summer field research fellowships, dissertation and post-doc fellowships, language training fellowships, and several other opportunities currently in their planning stages. Whenever I hear someone say, "I didn't realize the ACMS had such a program," I usually know that is someone who either needs to become a member or renew their membership.

To join or renew your membership online visit www.mongoliacenter.org/join. Thanks to all our members and their continued support of the ACMS mission.

CIEE Faculty Abroad Seminar

2008-09-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

Mongolia: Empire and Democracy
June 21 - July 1, 2009

The Council for International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in cooperation with the American Center for Mongolian Studies will offer a faculty development seminar in Mongolia during the summer of 2009. This 11-day seminar begins and ends in Ulaanbaatar. Included is a study tour to Khentii province, birthplace of Chinggis Khaan, where participants will spend two nights at a traditional ger camp, the circular felt tents that the Mongolians have traditionally lived in for centuries. This is a unique opportunity to travel off-the-beaten-track for on site lectures in places of historic significance and witness the traditional Mongolian nomadic lifestyle. For more information about the program and how to apply, please visit http://www.ciee.org/IFDS/seminars/mongolia.aspx.

Myth Confirmed

2008-09-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

When it comes to Mongolian-Chinese relations, it often seems there is more myth than fact at work. Mongolians are notoriously suspicious of all things Chinese, from foreign policy intentions to packages of instant ramen. And, from what I can gather, the Chinese are notoriously dismissive of all things Mongolian, forever holding on to the belief that nothing praiseworthy or important has ever happened in the north. I so often hear rumors of Chinese machinations and extreme, almost ludicrous, conspiracies directed towards Mongolia from Beijing that I am prone to be just as dismissive as the southern naysayers at times. Yet, I am also shocked how often sino-centric visitors to Mongolia take the equally extreme but opposite position that Mongolia is hardly an important concern of the government in Beijing. As an observer, I am always trying to ascertain where the truth lies in these extreme and opposing views.

Related to this is a common rumor in Mongolia that some Chinese maps include Mongolia as part of China. I recently saw notes from a speech Owen Lattimore gave in Paris in 1976 where he relayed a similar rumor that Premier Tsedenbal had expressed to him during one of their meetings, which came as a surprise to me because of the persistence and prevalence of the rumor. Well, this myth is somewhat confirmed by a recent post I read on another blog called Asian Gypsy. He refers to a map on a Chinese website that shows no country called Mongolia, just an uninterrupted border between Russia and China. The map is available at http://www.sdcc.com/chinamap.html. This, of course, does not prove a conspiracy in Chinese foreign policy, but it does confirm that such maps do exist. It is surprising to say the least. What other rumors are true, I wonder?