http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 234 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 INTRODUCTION The last fifteen years have borne witness to the implementation of the so-called culture of security and defence. This public policy emerged as a reaction to the lack of knowledge surrounding government security and defence policies, as well as low le-vels of identification among citizens with the armed forces (hereinafter AF) and their missions in the eyes of Ministry of Defence officials, and with a view to thus reducing these shortcomings. Notwithstanding the extensive use of the term culture of security and defence, it has not been recognised with a clearly defined conceptual notion, due to, among other reasons, the almost parallel use of two other expressions: culture of defence -the first to be coined- and culture of security. Although all share several basic cha-racteristics, which have amassed a certain consensus and consequently allowed for work to be undertaken on this basis, this «smallest common denominator» has been detrimental to more in-depth study thereof. Yet the truth is that this terminolo-gical plurality is not innocuous, since it gives rise to a whole raft of consequences of a political nature and of unquestionable practical significance, which is seldom highlighted. Moreover, the fact that it is often incorporated into political culture has deepened he complexity of the nature of the concept. Despite this, this issue has rarely been addressed from a Political Science angle, which, given that this is a long-standing field and of great interest to study of this scientific discipline, we consider to be a gap in its conceptualisation. For the reasons cited above, this paper explores the conceptual dimension of the term culture of security and defence. First of all, and from a strict political science view-point, the concept of political culture, its nature and essential elements are analysed, which also invites us to qualify certain statements that are frequently made about the culture of security and defence, as well as to distinguish this concept from others such as public opinion or awareness of defence. Secondly, the terms that have been seen to accompany this culture are described: defence, security and defence, and security. This is done by studying their origins and development and identifying the main for-mal and material consequences of their adoption. It concludes with a proposal for a theoretical construct that would complete existing concepts. THE CULTURE OF SECURITY AND DEFENCE AS PART OF POLITICAL CULTURE In literature relating to the culture of security and defence, it is commonplace to approach the concept on the basis of the notion of culture provided by the dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language (hereafter referred to as DRAE): “body of knowledge that allows someone to develop critical judgement”. This is often put to
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