It is now beyond doubt that attention to the ‘security—development nexus’ has become commonplace in national and global policymaking. However, how ‘the nexus’ is differently imbued with meaning and ultimately employed remains underexplored. In this article, we suggest a possible framework for mapping the multiple understandings that underlie specific articulations of ‘the nexus’ in order to reveal the ways in which meaning may shift in different (yet seemingly similar) discourses. To this end, we draw upon familiar stories about ‘development’ and ‘security’, and we offer a brief reading of ways in which ‘the nexus’ is articulated in policy texts. Ultimately, this framework may hint at what such articulations may imply for the policy agenda.

This article takes the dominant view of a top-down Khmer political culture as its point of departure and explores the extent to which the last decade's political changes have altered the socio-political landscape and triggered the growth of agency in rural areas. In particular, the reform of democratic decentralisation and its integrated 'soft' values are scrutinised in fields such as views on local governance, popular discourse on decentralisation, rural NGO activity and the gendering of politics.The dominant assessment of Cambodian political culture in the current academic literature is that it is quite 'monotheistic' in that it only acknowledges a single 'doctrine' regarding that culture. A rather distinct 'portrait' emerges: a political culture within a Brahman-Vedic tradition, stemming from the origin of Khmerness itself, embodied in the Angkorean era and embedded in society for centuries. Whether we look at historians emphasising the roots and longevity of this culture, sociologists arguing its embeddedness, or anthropologists ethnographically observing its micro-processes, among the recurring features are: exercise of power, social hierarchies, relational rigidity, patriarchal dominance, peasant docility, distance between the state and the people, a lack of general trust and social fragmentation. 2 Cambodia's modern disasters could thus be Joakim Öjendal is Associate Professor and This article is based on fieldwork in rural Cambodia. Four communes were studied in a four-year period (2001-04) by Kim and/or Öjendal, focusing on the gradual implementation of the first phases of the decentralisation reform. Communes were selected randomly, but with a certain geographical spread. The method of study was qualitative, including participatory observation and semi-structured interviews. In addition, several other rounds of fieldwork, for other purposes but in similar surroundings, have been used for reference. Implicitly, the article draws on our previous work cited below. We acknowledge the contribution of Sovatha Ann in some of these field sessions. We are grateful to Caroline Hughes, who has provided very valuable comments; we have also enjoyed the wealth of constructive and concrete comments provided by two anonymous JSEAS reviewers. 1 'Respect, admiration, fear' -a greeting every Cambodian recognises and uses, typically in addressing state authorities; see below for a discussion.

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