Mongolia, a vast, sparsely populated country almost as large as Western Europe, is at once strikingly poor and strikingly rich. Its GDP per capita falls just below that of war-torn Iraq, and Ulan Bator has some of the worst air pollution ever recorded in a capital city. At the same time, Mongolia sits atop some of the world’s largest mineral reserves, worth trillions of dollars, and its economy, already one of the world’s fastest growing, could expand by a factor of six by the end of the decade as those reserves are developed.

Jack Goldstone, Richard Cincotta, Jennifer Sciubba, and Geoff Dabelko spoke at the Monterey Institute for International Studies on key developments in political demography.

Why Washington History Matters: Lessons from U Street reviews the importance of U Street for Washington, D.C. history, arguing that the exploration of local history can expand our knowledge of larger questions of urban life.