On September 12 to October 3, Mongolian legislators visited the United States to participate in the International Visitor Leaderships Program (IVLP) focused on “U.S. Foreign Policy and Peacekeeping Operations.” Telmuun Bayarsaikhan is the Attaché at the Department of International Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Turmunkh Narmandakh is a legal officer in the Strategic Policy and Planning Directorate in the Mongolian Ministry of Defense.
In three weeks, B.Telmuun and N.Turmunkh traveled to seven cities in five states to meet with government representatives from and other organizations such as the National Bureau of Asian Research, World Justice Project, Seattle International Human Rights Coalition, World Affairs Council of Rhode Island, and educational organizations such as U.S. Army War College, U.S. Naval War College, University of Nebraska, University of Washington, and City University of New York.
During their program, they received an introduction to military legal practice with a focus on legal considerations for international military deployments for United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions and other coalition missions. They explored international humanitarian law, military justice and administrative law, status of forces arrangements, the laws of armed conflict, and other operational law subjects. Additionally, the participants learned about the functions of lawyers in UN positions in military units assigned overseas or to other countries, as well as in operational assignments.
The IVLP is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. To learn more about IVLP, click here.