CANCELED: Are We Entering a New Cold War? Perspectives from Mongolia

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This event is part of the Contemporary Asia Seminar Series.

There are some elements of a new kind of Cold War on the horizon. However, there are significant differences between today’s situation and the situation during the Cold War period. World history has experienced various forms of international architecture, and the world order is dynamic and changing.

In terms of economy, Asia’s rise is reshaping the global picture. However, the Asian Development Bank warned that one of the major challenges and risks the region must overcome in sustaining its growth momentum and realizing the “Asian Century” is the rising inequalities and disparities within countries that could alter its political and social fabric. The large disparities will generate rising social dissatisfaction and threaten peace and security. This, in return, would destroy the political support for the extraordinary discipline required to realize the vision of the “Asian Century.”

Many parts of Asia have seen significant increases in intra-country inequality and large disparities. Except Japan, in East Asia, skilled workers in cities and coastal areas have reaped a disproportionate share of the gains from globalization, while local regions lag behind. Therefore, we should find ways to spread prosperity from the East to the West of Asia in order to become a developed continent as a whole and to provide a satisfactory lifestyle to its population.

Mongolia’s foreign policy priority is strengthening its position in Asia and securing constructive participation in the political and economic integration process in the region. Mongolia is fully committed to participate in the regional integration processes. As such, Mongolia has a lot to offer to promote mutually beneficial cooperation within the region.

SPEAKER:

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Zandanshatar Gombojav, Chairman and Member of the Parliament of Mongolia

BIO:

Zandanshatar Gombojav is a member of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia and has been elected as the Chairman on February 1, 2019.

Over the years, he has held key roles within the Mongolian Government including Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (2009-2012), State Minister and Chief of the Cabinet Office (2017-2019). He also served as the Deputy Minister for Agriculture (2003-2004) before being elected to Parliament for two consecutive terms. He is a member of Mongolian People's Party, the largest political force formerly known as the Mongolian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party and has served in its General Secretary’s position during 2012-2013. Before his appointment as Foreign Minister, during which he had many foreign policy accomplishments from renewing the country's foreign policy concept to adopting new trade agreements with several partners, he had over a decade long successful career in Mongolia's banking sector, working at the Agricultural Bank (Khan Bank 2003), and the Central Bank of Mongolia (2000).

After graduating from the State Institute of Finance in Russia (1992), he began his career as a Lecturer on Economics and Finance at Mongolia's Institute of Trade and Industry. He has published extensively on various banking issues and also on topics regarding the international relations process in refereed journals and different conference proceedings. He has been a strong supporter of the reform process, being actively involved in the organization of youth development.

Between 2014-2015 he was a visiting scholar at Stanford Univesity's Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, directed at the time by Prof. Larry Diamond. His research interest focused on issues related to the democratic and political development of Mongolia given its geostrategic situation. The research continued at Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Center, directed by Prof. J.Fishkin, to a larger research project encompassing regional democratic and political development from Mongolia's unique perspective. As a strong advocate for democratic reform, Zandanshatar Gombajav was impressed by the Deliberative Democracy concept and its core application the deliberative polling as a sound tool to find common determination of political process including to change constitution. He has applied the concept of deliberative polling and pioneered to amend the Mongolian constitution which was successfully adopted by the State Great Hural on 14 November 2019.

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