Mongolia: Stepping on the World Stage
By Jody Ray Bennett for ISN
In an attempt to bolster its recognition and influence in the international area, Mongolia is gearing up to send its eighth rotating battalion of 250 troops for peacekeeping operations (PKO) to Sierra Leone,
external pageexpectedto land in the West African country in early August. Mongolian participation in UN peacekeeping missions around the world is largely the result of a
external page2003 initiative with the US called
Khaanquest, a “bilateral peacekeeping exercise that aims to improve bilateral peacekeeping capability between the two countries.”
In 2006 alone, the US spent $18 million to train a part of the 11,000-member Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF) for peacekeeping missions. Approximately external page300 US military personnel trained roughly“600 Mongolian troops, as well as 200 others from Bangladesh, Fiji, South Korea, Thailand and Tonga.”
external pagePraised by the United Nations for providing perimeter and site security to the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), the Mongolian forces also secure “detainees when they are moved outside the Court’s compound, and [are] responsible for evacuating officials and detainees in cooperation with the UNMIL’s [United National Mission in Liberia] Quick Reaction Force (QRF).”
Playing the Great Players
Mashbat Otgonbayar Sarlagtay, a senior researcher and analyst at the Mongolian Institute for Strategic Studies explained to ISN Security Watch that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the MAF, which once held a high reputation in communist society, began to be perceived by the Mongolian public as a large waste of money during the transition from a command to market economy. Because the public no longer felt threatened at its border from surrounding Russia and China, the MAF scaled down dramatically and performed no international military operations until a small unit deployed to Iraq in 2003 - the first foreign deployment of Mongolian forces since the external page1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
“[Because] the MAF was on the brink of dismantlement after the Mongolian democratic revolution, the MAF had to find its raison d’être and UN PKO or multinational force deployment [became] the rationale. It coincided with Mongolia’s Foreign Policy Doctrine of Third Neighbor Policy, [which aims to balance] its two neighbors’ influence in Mongolia by a powerful third one,” Sarlagtay told ISN Security Watch.
The “third influence” here is clearly the United States, and according to external pageStratfor Global Intelligence, a strong enough alliance between the US and Mongolia could allow the US military to “establish forward surveillance posts for observing Russia and China, [greatly enhancing] US early warning systems for detecting missile launches and augment[ing] electronic eavesdropping operations.”
This strategy has been a significant success for Mongolia. Since its military, peacekeeping and training partnership with the US, Russia and China have made significant moves to thaw relations with Mongolia in an effort to suppress the growing relationship between the landlocked country and the United States. Moscow has since external pageexcused $11 billion of debt accumulated by Mongolia since the end of World War II, finalizing Mongolia’s total debt to Russia at a mere $300 million. China has since funneled over $200 million to help Mongolia build a external pagenew transportation and energy infrastructure and more external pagerecently held a “six-day [peacekeeping] exercise, involving 45 soldiers from Mongolia and 46 from China, featuring instruction and cultural exchanges at a training base in northern Beijing.” Seemingly allied with US interests, the Canadian Forces Language School provides Mongolian brigades and peacekeeping forces with external pageEnglish language training before deployment.
The MAF has also been supporting the US operation in Afghanistan, sending eight teams of no more than 25 soldiers to the Graveyard of Empires. Performing a non-peacekeeping role in the country, Mongolia is preparing to send external page150 of its soldiers for six months - its largest contribution to date - beginning in September.
It is clear why the Americans want a Mongolian force in Afghanistan. Not only is Mongolia supplementing the American military in Afghanistan at a time when most of the external pagecoalition forces are scaling down or pulling out altogether, but the vast majority of the military equipment used in Afghanistan are external pageformer Soviet Union models designed between the 1950s and 1970s—the exact same models currently used by the MAF.
From Soviet satellite to Sierra Leone
According to a Mongolian external pagenews source, the brigade to Sierra Leone will “provide support in enforcing the ceasefire treaty and peace process, defending UN buildings and its employees, helping to ensure humanitarian and human rights operations, assisting in building national security and training army forces and policemen.”
Colonel Jargalsaikhan Mendee, former Mongolian defense attache to the United States who coordinated the first MAF multinational force mission to Iraq in coordination with US counterparts, told ISN Security Watch that part of Mongolia’s interests is to bolster its recognition on the international arena, primarily through UN PKO participation.
“Mongolia wants to advance its international profile as a good member nation of the United Nations and world community. We deploy active duty military officers and non-commissioned officers [most of which have] 2-3 years of service experience. The Sierra Leone mission is the first ever Mongolian peacekeeping commitment under the UN flag in [the context] of a military contingency,” Col Mendee told ISN Security Watch.
According to the colonel, the MAF has supplied 14 military observers and 2 military officers to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002, 21 observers and 4 officers to the Western Sahara in 2002, 9 observers and 3 officers to the Sudan in 2005, 8 observers to Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2006, and 2 observers and 1 officer to Georgia in 2007. Aside from its coalition support in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MAF supplied 2 platoons of 72 soldiers for the coalition mission in Kosovo between 2005 and 2006. Col Mendee told ISN Security Watch that the MAF was currently preparing to deploy 800 personnel for the UN mission in Chad later this year, some of which will include Mongolian police personnel.
Mongolian participation with the UN has already earned it external pagea recent visit by UN chief Ban Ki-Moonto a “traditional Mongolian herder community to see first hand how their livelihoods were being hit by water shortages and desertification” as a result of global climate change. This is the trade off Mongolia was hoping for: supply troops for UN peacekeeping missions and receive recognition and aid from the UN; partner with the US for peacekeeping and military training as Russia forgives debt and China jumps at the chance to participate while funding domestic projects. In this context, the government of Mongolia is demonstrating its willingness to dance with the larger international actors, either in order to garner financial aid in the absence of a soviet donor state or perhaps to secure its independence from surrounding superpowers that might otherwise have regained control of Mongolia as a periphery client state.
While the observation of Mongolian soldiers patrolling cities throughout Sierra Leone might seem peculiar, this operation is a perceived rational choice for Mongolia to the extent that international relations theory provides explanatory models of global politics. At the very least, the Mongolian role in Sierra Leone can partially be understood as a necessary means to secure gains relative to what otherwise would be absent upon a continued existence in not only one, but two hegemonic spheres of influence
In 2006 alone, the US spent $18 million to train a part of the 11,000-member Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF) for peacekeeping missions. Approximately external page300 US military personnel trained roughly“600 Mongolian troops, as well as 200 others from Bangladesh, Fiji, South Korea, Thailand and Tonga.”
external pagePraised by the United Nations for providing perimeter and site security to the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), the Mongolian forces also secure “detainees when they are moved outside the Court’s compound, and [are] responsible for evacuating officials and detainees in cooperation with the UNMIL’s [United National Mission in Liberia] Quick Reaction Force (QRF).”
Playing the Great Players
Mashbat Otgonbayar Sarlagtay, a senior researcher and analyst at the Mongolian Institute for Strategic Studies explained to ISN Security Watch that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the MAF, which once held a high reputation in communist society, began to be perceived by the Mongolian public as a large waste of money during the transition from a command to market economy. Because the public no longer felt threatened at its border from surrounding Russia and China, the MAF scaled down dramatically and performed no international military operations until a small unit deployed to Iraq in 2003 - the first foreign deployment of Mongolian forces since the external page1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
“[Because] the MAF was on the brink of dismantlement after the Mongolian democratic revolution, the MAF had to find its raison d’être and UN PKO or multinational force deployment [became] the rationale. It coincided with Mongolia’s Foreign Policy Doctrine of Third Neighbor Policy, [which aims to balance] its two neighbors’ influence in Mongolia by a powerful third one,” Sarlagtay told ISN Security Watch.
The “third influence” here is clearly the United States, and according to external pageStratfor Global Intelligence, a strong enough alliance between the US and Mongolia could allow the US military to “establish forward surveillance posts for observing Russia and China, [greatly enhancing] US early warning systems for detecting missile launches and augment[ing] electronic eavesdropping operations.”
This strategy has been a significant success for Mongolia. Since its military, peacekeeping and training partnership with the US, Russia and China have made significant moves to thaw relations with Mongolia in an effort to suppress the growing relationship between the landlocked country and the United States. Moscow has since external pageexcused $11 billion of debt accumulated by Mongolia since the end of World War II, finalizing Mongolia’s total debt to Russia at a mere $300 million. China has since funneled over $200 million to help Mongolia build a external pagenew transportation and energy infrastructure and more external pagerecently held a “six-day [peacekeeping] exercise, involving 45 soldiers from Mongolia and 46 from China, featuring instruction and cultural exchanges at a training base in northern Beijing.” Seemingly allied with US interests, the Canadian Forces Language School provides Mongolian brigades and peacekeeping forces with external pageEnglish language training before deployment.
The MAF has also been supporting the US operation in Afghanistan, sending eight teams of no more than 25 soldiers to the Graveyard of Empires. Performing a non-peacekeeping role in the country, Mongolia is preparing to send external page150 of its soldiers for six months - its largest contribution to date - beginning in September.
It is clear why the Americans want a Mongolian force in Afghanistan. Not only is Mongolia supplementing the American military in Afghanistan at a time when most of the external pagecoalition forces are scaling down or pulling out altogether, but the vast majority of the military equipment used in Afghanistan are external pageformer Soviet Union models designed between the 1950s and 1970s—the exact same models currently used by the MAF.
From Soviet satellite to Sierra Leone
According to a Mongolian external pagenews source, the brigade to Sierra Leone will “provide support in enforcing the ceasefire treaty and peace process, defending UN buildings and its employees, helping to ensure humanitarian and human rights operations, assisting in building national security and training army forces and policemen.”
Colonel Jargalsaikhan Mendee, former Mongolian defense attache to the United States who coordinated the first MAF multinational force mission to Iraq in coordination with US counterparts, told ISN Security Watch that part of Mongolia’s interests is to bolster its recognition on the international arena, primarily through UN PKO participation.
“Mongolia wants to advance its international profile as a good member nation of the United Nations and world community. We deploy active duty military officers and non-commissioned officers [most of which have] 2-3 years of service experience. The Sierra Leone mission is the first ever Mongolian peacekeeping commitment under the UN flag in [the context] of a military contingency,” Col Mendee told ISN Security Watch.
According to the colonel, the MAF has supplied 14 military observers and 2 military officers to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002, 21 observers and 4 officers to the Western Sahara in 2002, 9 observers and 3 officers to the Sudan in 2005, 8 observers to Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2006, and 2 observers and 1 officer to Georgia in 2007. Aside from its coalition support in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MAF supplied 2 platoons of 72 soldiers for the coalition mission in Kosovo between 2005 and 2006. Col Mendee told ISN Security Watch that the MAF was currently preparing to deploy 800 personnel for the UN mission in Chad later this year, some of which will include Mongolian police personnel.
Mongolian participation with the UN has already earned it external pagea recent visit by UN chief Ban Ki-Moonto a “traditional Mongolian herder community to see first hand how their livelihoods were being hit by water shortages and desertification” as a result of global climate change. This is the trade off Mongolia was hoping for: supply troops for UN peacekeeping missions and receive recognition and aid from the UN; partner with the US for peacekeeping and military training as Russia forgives debt and China jumps at the chance to participate while funding domestic projects. In this context, the government of Mongolia is demonstrating its willingness to dance with the larger international actors, either in order to garner financial aid in the absence of a soviet donor state or perhaps to secure its independence from surrounding superpowers that might otherwise have regained control of Mongolia as a periphery client state.
While the observation of Mongolian soldiers patrolling cities throughout Sierra Leone might seem peculiar, this operation is a perceived rational choice for Mongolia to the extent that international relations theory provides explanatory models of global politics. At the very least, the Mongolian role in Sierra Leone can partially be understood as a necessary means to secure gains relative to what otherwise would be absent upon a continued existence in not only one, but two hegemonic spheres of influence