This weekend, Mongolia will be hosting the ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies. This will be the highlight of the Mongolian presidency of this body.
Numerous delegations are travelling to Ulaanbaatar for the ministerial meetings organized in five separate fora: parliamentary, women, youth, civil society, corporate democracy.
Originally conceived of by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000 as a caucus of democratic countries, the CD is still somewhat casting about for its real mission. While an international grouping of democratic countries makes intuitive sense, its not entirely clear what such a grouping would do operationally.
Be that as it may, Mongolia’s role as president of the CD clearly acknowledges the achievements of its democratization.
I have taken this occasion to write two media comments:
- In Canada’s foreign policy newspaper, Embassy, I have tried to make a case for a deeper Canadian engagement with Mongolia given the fit with Conservative foreign and development policy.
- On the Financial Times ‘beyond BRICS’ blog, I have offered a bit of an overview of the state of democracy in Mongolia.
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