This paper examines the kinds of higher education policy discourses embedded in major Cambodian higher education policy texts related to educational reform efforts undertaken by the government. The focus is on post-conflict Cambodia, that is, Cambodia since 1993 when the first national elections were organized after more than two decades of armed civil conflict. The paper argues that higher education policymaking in post-conflict Cambodia can be conceptualized as a new form of 'hybrid governmentality'. In this hybrid form, the government draws on policy discourses associated with modern, liberal democracy to legitimize its existence. At the same time, it continues to insert its own discourses rooted in Cambodia's traditional socio-cultural hierarchical order, unstable political frameworks, and legacies of prolonged civil upheaval.