This paper revisits the idea of ‘development’ from a conceptual and transnational perspective, focusing especially on the linkages between development and other key political concepts. Taking recent Scandinavian development policies and their key influences through international institutions and networks as the point of departure, I highlight here the complex, entangled dynamics of translating global/international development norms into national aid and governance policies (and, to a lesser yet interesting extent, vice versa). Through a focus on contemporary entanglements between development and other key political objectives, e.g. “security” from global threats, I also aim to contribute to our critical understanding of how development and other dynamic international concepts become adapted by (trans)national agents.
