Any national identity comes down from their
history, tradition, lifestyle and it can even appear in
their rituals through ethno genesis process which
would not change the people’s mindset and
intellectuals. In the process, by cultural behaviors
the historical ethnicity intellectual slowly adapts to
the new generations.
When the mindset is strongly combined with t
he national historical background, the
adaptation will increase upon new generations
with the help of ethical culture such as:
history, art, poetry, literature, myths, music,
and folk arts etc. This also fades into political
cultures. Any ethical psychology has a
complex phenomenon that includes two
structures which is static (long-term) or
dynamic (short-term).
In this brief presentation we will further
see what the Mongolian national identity
is, and how it affects the foreign policy.
But first of all let’s reconsider our
imagination and understandings toward
Mongolia.
Mongolia is a landlocked country located in East and Central Asia, bordering the Russian
Federation in the north and the PRC to the west and south. The country is mountainous with an
average altitude of 1580 meters above sea level. There are three mountain chains which is located in
the north and west. As for the Eastside, Gobi desert takes place. In the agriculture sector the main
harvesting crops are wheat and animal husbandry, as for mineral resources the mains would be coal,
copper and iron.
Mongolia has a continental climate, in the summer most of the country is very warm, but
in the winter it can turn into a quite opposite situation. In January the temperature is up to -30 Celsius.
The capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar is considered as the coldest capital in the world with long, cold
winters and short summers, during which most precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless
days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure.
LanguageMongolia’s official language is
Mongolian and they use Cyrillic letters. 90% of
the population can speak Mongolian, but in the
region they have many accents as well. Some
groups also speak different languages for
example: to the western provinces of Mongolia,
the people speak Kazakh and Tuvan language.
English is the most common and used language
in this country, Russian comes in the second
place.
Mongolia’s
national identity
Mongolia’s common national identity figure is
originated from their mentality to survive in
chaotic nature conditions while living with a
nomadic lifestyle. The main fundamental that
made today’s unique Mongolian mindset is
nomadic that we use to conduct for over
hundreds of years. Mongolian herders
accumulate vast amounts of knowledge
about the use of their livestock in the conditions
given upon the four seasons. That is of course
how to raise and feed the animals on the right
land, pasture, and water, reproduce their skins
to make leather, get meat and milk out for their
own food supply. To increase shelter
supplements, artifacts, livestock equipment.
The harmonization between these skills and
nomadic lifestyle brought psychological
reactions of the Mongolian people and that has
become the foundation of today’s process.
Anyone can tell a Mongolian equanimity personality
anytime. For millions of years, people that lived in Mongolia had
made a mentality that adapts with their lifestyle in every way to
themselves. In other words, as for owners of the long continuous
lands, they always had a foreseeing vision; that never made
a quick decision at any point. Thought wisely at first for an
amount of period than considered all the threats etc. the nomadic
people had many life wise skills that they used. Nomadic life
features not only living process and life hacks but it is very
important to adapt to the place that you live anytime, anywhere.
Worshiping the nature and the nomadic life style are all connected
to each other. They have created a mentality to protect the nature
and to live with the given customs.
Г. Цэрэнханд, Монголчууд Угсаа - Соёл, Зан Заншил I (2005) 2
3-32-р тал
The nomadic mindset can also affect the modern societies living
habits. For example: Time management is a very tricky situation in this country.
This is also because cultural mindset in their veins. There were no 24 hours a day
back then, they starts at sunrise and counts by 4 hours which will continue as
evening, sunset and night.
This also can appear in European people as we know from his
story. But the opposite for Mongolians the people who follows their
sheeps in an unlimited borderless country the knowledge of the borders
and small areas are quite difficult. This example appeared in the 13th
century in Mongolian empire era.
That is why time counting is very different from the western
modern world we live in today. Not only time but concepts of geography
is also unique. Countries bordering the sea has very good knowledge of
geography and borders.
Like the citizens in
Japan, the country got stroked by
tsunamis, hurricanes and
earthquakes many times in the past
, but the peoples surviving skills
also increased due to the
circumstances that the nature
gives.
The way of living in Mongolian people use to be different. In
Asia they had a joint labor system as for Mongolian families it is
common to work alone. For example: The father herds his
horses, mother milks the cows and goats, grandparents look
after their grandchildren and the grandchildren herds the lambs etc.
this helps them to make a decision on their own. This also affects
the people nowadays. Another example given: During the end of
the cold war in 1990 the only country that had a
successful western democracy in Asia was Mongolia. In this
example you can see how Mongolian people can strive in
a situation.
Mongolian people lived a long side the herd and nature but
lived far long from each other. This was considered as
respecting each other’s authority. In the cold winter with
uninhabited plains they had to live as neighbors even when
they are even far from each other. This tradition had made
the Mongolians more curious in situations. Small population
with a broad land tends to make the people to have an
innocent and caring mindset. In almost 20 years, Mongolians
lost their hatred towards the Japanese and even voted them as
a very reliable country, in 2016.
Ever since the Mongolian empire has started the main foreign policies
were to have good political and economic relations with neighboring countries.
When you see the Mongolian history of foreign policy, you can tell they were very
calm in terms of decision making process. For example: they had equal respect to
any religion. Only Mongols tried to have a peaceful agreement and negotiations to
other countries and wait for their decision first. This is the most common national
identity of our people even today.
Г.Баасанхүү, Pax Mongolica буюу Их Монгол Улсын Гадаад Бодлогын Энхээр Т
охинуулах Үзэл Санааны Тухай, Их Монгол Улсын Эзэнт Гүрний Түүх, Соёлын
Асуудлууд (2006) 211-215р тал
In a book called “ Mongol man” which was written by Ts.Balkhjav stated t
he uniqueness of a Mongolian mentality and national identity origin.
1. • The attemptation to newness, that came down from the nomadic time
2.• Psychology of procedural behavior based on organizational behavior and organizational characteristics
3.• The rules of obeying and the rules of governing
4.• The level of intellectual capacity concerned with worships
5.• Based on the National Freedom Index, the hatred of foreign aggression and war
6.• Technique of possessing property
7. • It is easy to ease to the prepared things. Not to make them on their own
8.
• As the main feature of Mongolia, the psychological characteristic of these people, these eight psychological characteristics are defined as the general national identity of the Mongolian people.
How does the good
and bad behavior of
Mongolians affect the
ir development?
Mongolian Marketing Consulting Group made a
research on “Appealing Mongolians good and bad
behavior”. The research has been made through
out a conversation on the phone (CATI) by
professionals. This survey has reached total 21
provinces and Ulaanbaatar’s 9 districts.
As the result of the research an accommodative
personality was the best behavior concerned.
For the worst behaviors of Mongolians were
selfishness. Respondents consider themselves
selfish and jealous but some of them feel that this
behavior is ineffective.
While two out of every 10 people has answered
that they have good behaviors more than the bad
so it doesn’t affect our development. But 93% of
the citizens’ responded selfishness and laziness is
a major obstacle to Mongolia's growth.
http://www.mmcg.mn/posts/post/530
1. The new principles of the Mongolian foreign policy: Independent,
non-aligned, multilateral, peace-loving, opportunistic and most
importantly, protecting, maintaining and promoting it’s core natio
nal interest
2. Have a balanced relations with its north and south neighbors
3. National security regarding international disputes or conflicts, the
status of a denuclearized zone
4. “The Third Neighbor Policy”
5. “The Trilateral Neighboring Policy”
6. Active multilateral relations
In order to look at the foreign policy of Mongolia, one would have to consider the context and the environment
of its existence. Namely, the political system differs from its neighbor states, hugely dependent on industrial and
economical factors through trade relations from foreign markets and most importantly, it’s geopolitical and
demographical condition, a sparsely populated, landlocked buffer state in-between humongous two neighbor
nations.
One can formulate the new paradigm of Mongolian foreign policy by the following list, based on
a macro-scale research of the parameters or boundaries in which the foreign policy of Mongolia functions.
A paradigm of a foreign policy defines it’s forms and symptoms.
The Foreign
Policy of
Mongolia
The top priority of the Mongolian
Foreign Policy: One can say that Mongolia has
a very special geopolitical condition based on
the fact as mentioned earlier, it is situated
in-between two major powers with their own
respectful policies and stances on the
international relations. Specifically, bordering
to its south is the largest developing country
and the biggest emerging market, a nuclear
power, and the most populous state. To its
north, Mongolia shares a border with the
rejuvenating empire, also a nuclear power with
the largest landmass in the world.
Therefore, it was crucial for Mongolia to set the
fundamental legislative basis for a cooperative
bilateral relations with it’s two neighbors, starting
from 2003. The first administration of the top
priority principle of the foreign policy of Mongolia
to have balanced relations with it’s two
geographical neighbors was observed from the
“Traditional Good Neighbor Partnership”
agreement with Moscow and “Good Neighbors’
Mutual Trust Partnership” with the PRC. 6 years
later, the “Strategic Partnership” was signed
between Mongolia and it’s northern neighbor
followed by the same agreement, which was signed
between its southern neighbor, as said, balancing
the outer-domestic relations of the country. The late
st update from this double-fronted patterns of
diplomatic attempts is without a doubt, the 2014
“Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” made with
a country of which the president currently goes by
the name of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
The Third Neighbor Policy
“The Third Neighbor Policy” is a hallmarking product of the active, independent and multilateral
(multifaceted) foreign policy principles Mongolia implements, aimed at neutralizing its relations
with its neighbors based on its historical lessons and the disadvantageous geographical context,
starting from the 90s. As mentioned above, Mongolia has two major players surrounding it, which
naturally makes the two big powers a threat to some extent. To some extent because although
Mongolia is very wary of it’s two neighbors, one can point out the fact that Mongolia trusts or
seem to be trusting it’s bordering giants, clearly from it’s last 30 years of diplomatic policy on
relations with the aforementioned two parties. In numbers, 63% of Mongolian foreign trade is
dealt with Beijing, in other words, dangerously dependent on it’s concerning bold neighbor to the
south. Similarly or even more interestingly, all of Mongolia’s oil imports are from that of the
former major red army occupying state, Russia. It is believed that again, even though Mongolia is
extremely careful on it’s relations with China and Russia, Mongolia does not worry about it’s
dependence on it’s two neighbors in terms of trade.
“The Third Neighbor Policy” proves the unique
characteristic of the Mongolian mindset, which can be
described as: limitless and without any boundaries,
overcoming all obstacles by seeking everything that is
new.
‘The Third Neighbor Policy” has been deeply embedded in
the foreign policy of Mongolia through the significant and
essential decisions reflected on both “The National
Security Framework of Mongolia” as well as “The Foreign
Policy Framework of Mongolia” starting from 1990, which
now has become a new aim for a government policy and
theoretical-practical international relations’ research
studies. The former framework declares that “By following
the Third Neighbor Policy, Mongolia will develop
bilateral as well as a multilateral relations regarding social,
cultural, economical and political co-operations with highl
y developed democratic countries” in 2010. The revised
version of the latter framework emphasizes that “On a
policy level, for the first time, Mongolia has decided to
widen and develop a cooperative partnership relations with
the western-eastern nations and associations, the EU,
Japan as well as the USA within the structure of The
Third Neighbor Policy” in 2011.
The Third Neighbor Policy
The evidence of the claim “The Foreign Policy of Mongolia” is the fact that this
policy is independent, anti-aligning, multi-faceted (multilateral), peace-loving,
liberal (open) and most importantly, respectful to the national core values and
interests.
It is not a news that Mongolia has been interested for the last century in becoming
friends with a third neighbor that is advanced in all sorts of developments.
Unfortunately, this was no child’s play, only it would be possible to implement when
Mongolia had a chance to administer a relatively independent foreign policy. The
result of an independent foreign policy is the creation of a balanced, beneficial and
friendly cooperation among Mongolia and its neighbors. “The Third Neighbor Policy
” has pulled Mongolia out of the pickle in 1990, from the beginning of its
implementation, which was an economic crisis, and now the policy works as
a cornerstone of the Mongolian economic cooperation with third neighbor countries
as mentioned earlier.
Judging from the suspense of the series of events that occurred around the policy, the
main influencing factors of “The Third Neighbor Policy” is as mentioned before,
firstly the “Mongolian Mindset”, and secondly the domestic development of the state,
and thirdly the decisions made by the government or policies made by the
government, and finally the significant changes that were made in the international
relations’ environment of the country.
The soft spot of the national security measure of Mongolia, is the fact th
at it’s only two neighbors are both nuclear powers and Mongolia has
been taking a role of a buffer state, both policy wise as well as literally.
In the aforementioned “National Security Framework of Mongolia”, it
is defined that one of the ways to ensure the state’s secure existence is
to “Legitimize the denuclearization of Mongolia in front of the rest of
the world in order to insure it’s security using a political leverage as
such a key to an international security of the state”.
Not only that, in the following “The Foreign Policy Framewor
k of Mongolia”, it is mentioned that “Mongolia must not take
part in the following actions or activities by any means
necessary: will not be in any possession of any weapon of
mass destruction(s) in terms of geographical ownership
including nuclear weapon and on a separate note, foreign
military forces will not be allowed to settle or temporarily base
on Mongolian soil in any event. The ground and the air space
of Mongolia
must not be used against any nation or state under any
circumstances for any military union or non aligning powers”.
In February of 2000, the “Great
Khural of Mongolia” (the parliament) adopted
a law titled “The legislation on Mongolia’s
nuclear-weapon-free status”, which was a
domestic legal fortification of the UN
Resolution 53/77/B “Mongolian Security,
Nuclear Free Status”
from the 53rd General Assembly Meeting in
1998. It was the end result of the Mongolian
announcement of its “Nuclear Weapon Free
Zone” during the 48th General Assembly
meeting of the UN in 1992.
The denuclearization of
Mongolia:
The importance of the “Nuclear Weapon Free Zone”
being supported and legislated by the international
political as well as the international law community, in
this case, the UN, lies in the fact that Mongolian Foreign
Policy is effectively being implemented through the
system by the major (nuclear) powers as of the 67th GA
meeting of the UN in 2012, when the 1st committee on
politics and security legislated the draft resolution of legit
imizing Mongolia’s “Nuclear Free State” status, which
was initiated by Mongolia for it’s efforts
Starting from 1968, with the “The Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”
Mongolia actively entered and ratified
international treaties and conventions based
around the concept of denuclearized
international community, including the 1996 “
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty”
as well as the 1997 “The Joint Convention on
the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on
the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management”.
The sheer fact of a single state
legitimizing it’s “nuclear weapon free zone“
status is as of now the only instance and one of
the many examples of how the “Mongolian Min
dset” actually benefits the nation, when put in
place correctly. In this respect, Mongolia did
not just entered a few treaties in the 20th
century and sat back, no. In December of 2001,
Mongolia revised the “Rules and Regulations of
The Nuclear Energy Commission”, followed by
the ratification of the 2005 “The Nuclear
Terrorism Convention” of the UN.
A mechanism that maximizes the profits and benefits of a three-state
economic cooperation has been directed by Mongolia’s effort to
establish a permanent institution, which supports a trilateral dialogue.
In this sense, Mongolia’s initiation of researching it’s two neighbor
states’ policies and stance in the regional as well as global issues or
Mongolia’s attempt to coherently explain it’s policies and positions in
order to gain support is crucial in building the aforementioned structure
.
The Trilateral
Relations’ Policy of Mongolia:
The Three-State-Relations has reached a
new structure and subjects based on
Mongolia’s tireless pursuit of the success
ful initiation of the trilateral dialogue
mechanism. This can be observed from
the 2014 Dushanbe (Tajikistan), 2015
Ufa (Russia) and 2016 Tashkent
(Uzbekistan) summits.
The US, Japan and Mongolia, trilateral
meeting is a Mongolian base medium as
to exchange perspectives on the regional
as well as the multilateral cooperation an
d integration with regards to the
third-neighbors of Mongolia, starting
from 2015.
The 2017 trilateral meeting among the US, Japan and
Mongolia focused on the most concerning topic at the
time, which was the threat of DPRK’s nuclear and
ballistic rocket program and the possibilities of it’s
denuclearization, in other words, mass destructive
weapon free DPRK. This was triggered by the launch of
a ballistic missile over Japanese territory on the 29th of
August, which was a threat to the regional and of course,
the global security of states. All parties noted that this
program and its symptoms are destabilizing the both level
power structure or security balance. In order to solve this
debauchery, all parties have concluded that they should
take responsibility for this matter according to their
promise made on the 2005 Joint Statement on “Six Party
Talks” held in the capital of China as well as other
international responsibilities that the parties feel obliged
to take measures according to all the UN Security
Council Resolutions that overlaps the situation,
especially Pyongyang was reminded of it.
Both the US and Japan mentioned it’s gratification towards Mongolian contribution in efforts of keeping
global peace and stabilizing conflicted regions through the UN peacekeeping program.
3 parties once again proved their agreed position of developing a trilateral as well as a multilateral security
and defense measures in the region. On a more abstract note, 3 parties also agreed on the stance that
international law is the crucial bases of a peaceful and productive relations among states, which shall be
carried out by the mechanisms of international organizations, such as the UN.
• Therefore, the three parties have decided to call upon all the UN member states to take responsibility in
imposing order on DPRK and solve for the ongoing nuclear threats as well as abducted citizens
according to the resolution 2371 of the UN.
While agreeing on partnering with Mongolia on it’s sustainable energy
projects, both US and Japan has acknowledged the fact that the competitive
advantages of a Mongolian agricultural industry is significant. Japan and US
also expressed their hopes of Mongolia abiding it’s agreed program with the
IMF, in order to restore foreign investors’ trust in the Mongolian market.
Noting that a mutually beneficial economic cooperation is the cornerstone of
the trilateral relations, parties have exchanged opinions on the chances of
how the Mongolian government can help facilitate its market for the
American and Japanese businesses and investors, in terms of transparency
and stable legal as well as political environment with the simple goal of
increasing the volume of trade among the three states.
Observing from the above mentioned process, one can claim that the
traditional nomadic culture of three-family-camping lifestyle has become a
major influence on Mongolian interest in developing a trilateral relations on
the international relations level with states, such as the US and Japan.
It is concludible that in
Mongolia’s case of
foreign policy and trilater
al relations, considering
it’s enormous two
neighbors to the south and
to the north, the state’s
security and stability is
hugely dependent on the
regional state of relations,
which therefore pushes
Mongolia to implement an
active and in some cases,
experimental policies to
reach its objectives.
• The long-known neutral policy has a background of being under the influence of an Soviet rule , which now has evolved into a non-aligning agenda
• Plays a role of a buffer state between Russia and China, geopolitically
• Implements an active policy directed towards getting the state recognized on the global scale
• National stability is ontologically dependent on its relations with the two neighboring states
• Desires to participate in the international economic cooperation in order to grow and prosper
Features of the Foreign Policy of
Mongolia:
Alexander Wendt’s approach towards the
constructivist theory has been the theoretical
bases of this research, which correlates a state’s
foreign policy with it’s social values, culture,
tradition, normative and ideologies. He is one of
the core social constructivists, in the field of
international relations.
According to Mr.Wendt, a particular foreign policy of a
state grows out of its unique characteristics, in that is, a
nation or a state defines itself, others and the interests of
both in a different manner than one another for that they
have different society and therefore a different country.
Those characteristics that defines a state’s foreign policy
goes as follows:
2.Language
3.Religion and it’s ideology
4.Custom
5.Normative or social culture
6.Tradition
7.Common duties and rights according to law over a
respectable period of time
1.Historical geographical territory and
historical remembrance
Because of the recently discussed reasons, it is difficult to predict
the outcomes of different foreign policies interacting in the
international relations’ arena, for that every state and a non-state
actor encompasses dissimilar backgrounds and goals, i.e. policies.
Therefore one must understand the underlying factors of which
later combines into the reason why a foreign policy have such
symptoms that are complicated enough to cause scholars have a
mildly distressed ponders throughout the year.
Mongolians have a uniquely special and nomadic culture that is
deeply connected with the nature, the land, the sky and their
ancestors, which shaped the Mongolian mindset to become
characterized as a big-picture considering, free-thinking, far-sighted,
and therefore, an ancient sentiment
Summarization
The “denuclearized state status”, the “Ulaanbaatar Dialogue” and the “Trilateral Relations” indicates the sensible and pragmatic approach, which a Mongolian actively takes to participate in the international realms of relations
The Trilateral “Third Neighbor Policy”, an evidence of a nomadic mindset
The policy of staying independent from its neighboring great powers as well as maintaining a balanced relations based on a historical practicalities
Although it is
obvious that the foreign policy
of Mongolia is very active and
innovative, the fundamental
bases of it is substantially aimed
to balance the neighboring two
Big neighbors’ functions for that
it’s sphere of influence is hugel
y dominated by these two fact
ors, not to neglect the “Third
Neighbor Policy” which
contributes into the regional
stability in terms of international
relations.
The Mongolian people perceive the
world from a wide angle with an
observant perspective, meaning that
the time-frame in which they make
most conclusions or decision is
possibly longer than the most,
making them calmer, yet precise.
This is because of the earlier
stated nomadic culture influence
, namely, connected with the
nature and respectful to it as
well, which makes them very
pragmatic. This is not a mystery,
the mindset comes from the
history, the language, the
tradition, the religion, the faith
and the values that make up the
Mongolian culture an Identity.