ARB podcast with Aubrey Menard, author of “Young Mongols Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East”

Mongolia is sometimes seen as one of the few examples of a successful youth-led revolution, where a 1990 movement forced the Soviet-appointed Politburo to resign. In Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East, Aubrey Menard profiles many of today’s young activists in Mongolia, in a wide array of different areas like pollution, feminism, LGBT rights, and journalism.

Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East, Aubrey Menard (Penguin Random House SEA, July 2020)
Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East, Aubrey Menard (Penguin Random House SEA, July 2020)

In this podcast, Menard talks to Nicholas Gordon about several of the activists profiled in her book, as well as the development of Mongolia’s democracy. They discuss whether we can think about young Mongolians as a “generation”, and whether the country’s experience supports or challenges normal democratic theory. They also touch base on what’s been happening in Mongolia since she published her book.

Aubrey Menard is an expert on political transitions, elections and democracy, working on democracy and governance issues in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Central America and the United States. She lived in Mongolia as a Luce Scholar from 2015 to 2016.