| Summary/Abstract |
Following Laura Bear et al.’s discussion of ‘generating capitalism’, this article presents an account of two historical periods in which certain Mongolian rulers made the deliberate decision to embrace Euro-American capitalism. They explain that this was done to help Mongolia entice ‘third neighbours’ whose interests secure Mongolia’s independence by preventing Mongolia from being occupied by China or Russia. This paper then recounts how, during each of these historical periods, the nation-state’s rulers prioritized the declaration and consolidation of de facto constitutive political independence. Building on this prioritization of the political, this paper argues that the generation of capitalism in Mongolia is not for the sake of the economy itself, as Bear et al. suggest, but for the sake of independence. Reflecting on this, this article shows how global capitalism can be seen not as a threat to the nation-state but as a help to balance dependences.
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