Negotiating Mongolian identity in the Eurasian geopolitical landscape

Abstract

During the post-Cold War period, the entire world including the post-Soviet Eurasian region has witnessed a paradigm shift in international relations. A new phenomenon of global interdependence of political, economic and other interests, has come to the fore replacing the global politics dominated by hard power projections. Mongolia is a classic case which fits into such a description, witnessing as it did positive changes in its identity—political, ideological, economic and social. During much of the Cold War period, as this chapter seeks to explore, the issue of Mongolian identity was a subject of intellectual discourse, especially in terms of its international relations with its two powerful neighbours—Russia and China. Due to its landlocked geographical location, Mongolia has always been influenced by the internal events in these two countries, whose ‘Great Game’ in Inner Asia has impacted the independent existence of Mongolia. It is in this context that this chapter highlights the circumstances in which Mongolia found itself during the period of the Sino-Soviet Cold War and the consequent challenges it had to deal with as it negotiates its political, social and economic identity. The changed Eurasian geopolitical landscape following the disintegration of the Soviet Union has added a new dimension to the nature of these challenges.