Mr. Mashbat Otgonbayar is the Director of National Institute of Strategic Studies at the National University of Mongolia and a Professor of International Relations and Foreign Policy at the same University. Previously he served as Vice-Director for National Security Studies and an Associate Professor at the National Intelligence Academy of Mongolia. Mr. Otgonbayar started his career in the Parliament of Mongolia as Assistant to the Chair of the Standing Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy. He then worked at the Institute for Strategic Studies under the National Security Council of Mongolia for 15 years from researcher to a Vice Director and Dean of Research. In 2013 he was appointed as a Strategic Policy Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Otgonbayar holds an LLM from the Law School of the National University of Mongolia (1998) and an MA in National Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California (2007). For his distinguished service, Mr. Otgonbayar was decorated with the Order of the Polar Star of Mongolia and the Medal of Friendship of North Korea.