7/2 Piper Campbell: U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia

Today we met Piper Campbell, the American Ambassador to Mongolia. We were lined up outside the embassy and then escorted in in small groups of five and we were not allowed to bring any electronics into the embassy with us. Sorry, no pictures from the talk When we went into the room there was a desk with seat and the seal of the America eagle on a backdrop. After we took our seats, a marine came into the room and asked us where our badges were and then asked the aid if we had triple z access. TRIPLE Z BABY! Not one or two, but three Zs in this bad boy. After we got settled, a national geographic group and a tour group joined us and Ambassador Piper began her briefing on Mongolia and then opened the floor for questions.

Piper Campbell

She first began by commenting on how the embassy was actually an old Russian building that had just been renovated. Not only that, after the disaster in Benghazi, the Mongolian Embassy had changed from a "lock and leave" embassy where there was no security, to having a marine detachment on duty 24/7. She then spoke about the 27 year diplomatic relationship between US and Mongolia and how at first it was paternalistic, but now Mongolia and U.S. joint relations now have the largest peace keeping force as a part of a defense deal and they are about to send teams out to South Sudan together.

Someone from another group asked about the mining industry and she spoke about how the Mongolian economy grew at 17% two years ago and was at that time the fastest growing economy in the world. She spoke about the dynamism and change that was going on in the city that you could see happening right before your eyes. I then asked a question about the soft currency and whether or not there were initiatives to make the currency convertible outside the country. It was a very specific question in relation to my work at J.P. Morgan and the limitation of cross-border transactions. She said that she didn’t have an answer and went on to speak of issues with FDI in Mongolia and how it needs to be more long-term. She also made a comment about how the U.S. treasury has no one in Mongolia. 

She then went onto discuss US economic interests in Mongolia. There is not that much interest, but she brought up a story about the many of the companies that are joint ventures with Russians. There was an instance where there was a project between Mongolia and US to build a railway across the country and only until after the deal was completed did the Russians force the Mongolians to back out of the deal. This was hilarious because earlier this week we had been in the room with the Russian business executives who made those decisions on behalf of the Russian Railway.

My friend Emiliano then asked a question the Russia’s impact on Mongolia and the lasting affects of socialism that are still seen today, the perfect question for our class. He told me afterwards that he thought that she would touch on the negative impacts of that relationship, but interestingly she dived into the positive aspects of that relationship. From the Russians there was a framework of predictability and heavy industry that was running, even at a loss. They had increased the literacy rate to 93% and gave Mongolians a worldly view by having them study at former soviet or communist countries around the world. The one negative that she brought up was the bureaucracy that was introduced, but from our academic discussions we could say that the bureaucracy was reintroduced to Mongolia via Russia after the collapse of the Mongolian Empire.

Cool Cat Emiliano

The final question of the day was regarding Mongolia and US’ security alliance. Piper responded by saying that Mongolia is a country stuck between two BRICs and that they are pursing a third neighbor policy, where they have explicitly made democratic commitments since their 1992 movement and are seeking ideological alignment with the US. The US is a great ally to Mongolia because it can act as a counter weight against Russia and especially China. The Chinese believe that Mongolia is a part of the PRC and have already acquired inner Mongolia. This is helping outer Mongolia retain its own identity and top prevent itself from becoming an “autonomous” region of China.

The talk was incredibly engaging and it was great to speak with such an incredible woman. She said that she attended Harvard Kennedy School and has a great relationship with the Mongolian President who also shares the same alma mater. HKS sounds like the place to be!