Mongolia - Military Doctrine

Mongolia’s vulnerability to widespread violent conflict is extremely low, both in its relationships with its two large neighbors and within its own population. Mongolia’s National security is to be guaranteed by the provision of an enabling internal and external environment in accordance with its national interests and the basis of this policy on national security is to be nationalism and patriotism and the main issues included in the country’s national interests are: Mongolian people’s and civilization existence, independence and sovereignty, territorial integrity, impregnability of national frontiers, economic independence, ecological balances, and national solidarity.

The Mongolian Parliament, the Mongolian President, the Council for National Security headed by the President, the Mongolian Government, together with its law enforcement, central and local administrative organizations, are responsible and dutybound to maintain national security. Mongolia’s National Security Council is responsible for regulating the strategic and tactical implementation of the principles for national security, overseeing their maintenance and submiting annual reports to Parliament, and all its activities are to be funded from the State Budget.

A new civilian control system has been established; yet, the old structure and culture still exist in the defense organizations. A lack of civilian expertise on defense issues means that civilians, legislators, and civilian Defense Minister cannot effectively control defense issues. Without the capacity to consider defense and security matters, the legislative and the general public simply have no ways to oversee or scrutinize the decisions and conduct of defense officials.

Since 1994, various important documents have shaped the external policy and influenced its implementation, such as, the External Policy Concept and the National Security Concept. According to the External Policy Concept, Mongolia pursues principles to build an enabling environment to (i) safeguard the country’s security and national interests by political and diplomatic means and (ii) maintain economic, scientific and technological development in the country. In addition, this policy’s purpose, direction and principles were identified based on history and reality.

Upon being formed in 1996, the coalition government presented its action program, The Action Program of the Government of Mongolia 1996-2000, to the SIH. This program was subsequently approved by the SIH. The action program set out the Government's intentions in the national defense sector as follows: to create an integrated national defense system; to reform the Armed Forces and strengthen border troops; to develop civilian control and public administration management in military organizations; to establish a legal basis for the MOD and the General Staff of the Armed Forces; and to develop and adopt a legal basis for the nomination of the civilian minister of defense.

In 1998, the State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia) adopted the Basis of the State Military Policy of Mongolia. The Basis of the State Military Policy of Mongolia is the fundamental legal document defining defense policy. According to the Mongolian Defense White Paper, 1997-1998, (Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia's Institute for Strategic Studies Press 1998), defense is an important component of maintaining national security and is a unified political, economic, social, legal and military resource for the purpose of providing the country’s preparedness to maintain and safeguard its independence and sovereignty, and protecting the entire territory against external threats and/or aggression. Mongolia’s armed forces comprise a system of State administrated military organizations, tasked to defend the country. Defense activities are implemented within the framework of the Constitution, principles of national security, principles of external policy, the basis of State military policy, and others, together with laws and regulations adopted in conformity with these.

The main objective of the armed forces is to protect the country’s independence and sovereignty and its entire territory from external armed attack and/or aggression. During times of peace, it is responsible for preparing to defend the country against armed attack and/or violations, to provide assistance to safeguard its frontiers, to oversee the preservation of the country’s air space, to assist with rescue services for people and their properties during disaster threats, to support enforcement of quarantine restrictions, to assist with training to form, maintain and reform mobilization resources, and to participate in international peacekeeping operations.

The disintegration of the world socialist system and the Soviet Union has dramatically changed the external situation of Mongolia which used to be aligned with them. The major changes taking place in Mongolia's two neighbouring countries have a direct impact on its external environment. The restructuring and reforming of the country's political, social and economic systems provide it with favorable conditions for conducting a foreign policy based on realism and according priority to its national interests.

The "Concept of National Security" was promulated in July 2007. The national security, of Mongolia represents the status when favorable external and internal conditions are secured to ensure vital national interests of Mongolia. The ideological basis of the policy ensuring national security is national patriotism.

The vital national interests of Mongolia consist in the existence of the Mongolian people and their civilization, in the country’s independence, sovereignty territorial integrity, inviolability of State frontiers, relative economic independence, sustainable ecological development and national unity. The vital national interests of Mongolia constitute the object of special care and protection on the part of the State and the people.

The endurance of national security implies State policy aimed at creating all-round guarantees of protecting and strengthening of Mongolia’s vital national interests, actions taken by the State, its agencies and functionaries to that effect as well as measures implemented by its citizens. Those measures shall be of both preventive and creative nature. Mongolia shall strive to develop its international competitiveness in the economic, cultural, scientific and technological and educational fields.

Factors affecting the national security are divided into internal and external by their origins and into immediate, temporary, long-term and permanent by their duration. The vital national interests of Mongolia are interests of a permanent nature. The factors that may have a negative impact on national security are divided into objective and subjective by their character, and into real and possible by the probability of danger they might cause. The policy of ensuring and strengthening the national security aims at identifying and eliminating any threats at the "probable" stage of its occurrence, as well as at reducing or preventing objective threats by the timely elimination of subjective ones.

The national security of Mongolia constitutes a part of the international security and as such is directly dependent on the latter. In terms of political spatial security, it is divided into global, regional and sub regional. In terms of internal spatial dimension, national security shall be of national, regional, aimag, the capital, soum levels.

National security is ensured by social, political, organizational, economic, diplomatic, military, intelligence and legal means, unilaterally or through the development of international cooperation. The main means of ensuring national security consists of taking measures designed to forecast and forestall the trends and the development of events on the basis of reliable information and thorough its evaluation and assessment.

The main guarantors of national security are the people of Mongolia and the Mongolian State. International guarantees of national security consist of political, legal and moral-psychological components. They are secured and strengthened through the combination of unilateral, bilateral and multilateral measures. Military-political security can be ensured through a collective security system by joint efforts or participation in such a system.

The duties to ensure national security are incumbent on the State Great Hural, the President of Mongolia, the National Security Council headed by the President, the Government, the central and local law enforcement and State administrative agencies. The legislative, executive, judicial and local self-governing bodies are obligated to implement, within their competence, the tenets of this Concept, strengthened by the Constitution, legislation and other relevant legal acts.

Political and public organizations, as well as citizens shall strictly observe the legislation on ensuring national security and the present Concept, and shall actively participate in the realization thereof. The National Security Council is charged with the coordination of the strategies and tactics of the implementation of the present Concept with due regard to existing circumstances. It shall monitor the state of safeguarding national security, and annually inform the State Great Hural thereon. The organizations concerned shall provide for funds needed to implement this Concept in their budgets. In cases of special measures, expenses shall be covered by the State budget.

Every kind of information necessary to coordinate and implement the State policy of ensuring national security shall be obtained from relevant authorities, citizens, and from foreign sources. The information database shall be set up under the National Security Council.

The multifaceted Development Plan of the Armed Forces' Establishment till 2015 or Mongolian Armed Forces-2015 (MAF-2015) program was approved by Mongolia's Presidential Decree number 304 on October 11,2006. By implementing this program, the MAF will reform its structure, and renew its equipment and vehicles.