About Mendee

Jargalsaikhan Mendee is a Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies of Mongolia. His research interests are Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), international security (geopolitics, peacekeeping), impacts of extractive industry on security, politics, and economy of Central and Inner Asia.

He has defended his PhD in political science at the University of British Columbia. His dissertation examines the political development of Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan in 1985-2010.

He has written MA theses on anti-Chinese sentiments in Mongolia and Mongolian civil-society. The first thesis (Anti-Chinese attitudes in post-communist Mongolia: the lingering negative schemas of the past) argues that anti-Chinese sentiment in post-communist Mongolia as consequence of the state institutionalization of the anti-Chinese attitudes during the Sino-Soviet tension.  The latter (Civil society in a non-Western setting: Mongolian civil society) contends the Mongolian civil society remains vulnerable to the exploitation of political and business interest groups.

He used to write occassional op-eds to the Eurasian Daily Monitoring of the Jamestown Foundation, Asia Pacific Memo, and is Associate Member of the Central Asian Program of the Elliott School of International Affairs.

Publications:

“Mongolia in the 2016-2017 Electoral Cycle: Blessings of Patronage,” co-author with Sergey Radchenko, Asian Survey, 57:6, November/December 2017.

“Mongolia’s Dilemma: A Politically Linked, Economically Isolated Small Power,” in Rozman G., Radchenko S. (eds) International Relations and Asia’s Northern Tier (Singapore: Asan-Palgrave Macmillan Series, 2018).

“Civil-Military Relations in a Dictatorship,” in Thomas C. Bruneau and Florina Cristiana Matei eds., The Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 79-92.

“Discovering Peacekeeping as a New Mission: Mongolia,” co-author with Thomas Bruneau in Thomas C. Bruneau and Florina Cristiana Matei eds., The Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 204-218.

“Asymmetrical Military Socialization – Mongolia as a Case Study” the Armed Force & Society Journal (online in 2012)

“Whole of Government Responses in Mongolia: From Domestic Response to International Implication,” co-author with Mr. David Last, Royal Military College, The Pearson Papers, Vol.11, No. 2, 2008, pp. 1-22, Available Online: http://www.peaceoperations.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PearsonPapersVol11-Issue2_WEB.pdf

Mongolia’s Peacekeeping Commitment, Discussion Paper, National Defense Intelligence College, May 2007, available at http://www.ndic.edu/press/6156.htm

“Mongolia-Australia Relations: A Mongolian Perspective,” Policy Analysis of Australian Strategic Policy Institute, September 14, 2012, available at http://apo.org.au/research/mongolia-australia-relations-mongolian-perspective

“Factoring Mongolia’s Non-Membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Voices From Central Asia, No. 4, July 2012, available at http://www.centralasiaprogram.org/images/Voices_from_CA_4,_July_2012.pdf

“Finally a New Era in NATO-Mongolia Relations,” Voices From Central Asia, No. 1, June 2012, http://www.centralasiaprogram.org/images/Voices_from_CA_1,_June_2012.pdf

“Mongolia’s Quest for Third Neighbors: Why the European Union?” EUCAM Policy Brief, No. 25, 2012, http://www.eucentralasia.eu/fileadmin/PDF/PolicyBriefs/MONGOLIA_QUEST_FOR_THIRD_NEIGHBOURS_WHY_THE_EU.pdf