1. For a policy framework, a method for managing policies for a set of resources in a computing environment, the method comprising: storing a plurality of imported policy rules as primitive policies, each primitive policy comprising a policy data structure that comprises a set of fields, wherein one of the fields of each primitive policy stores the imported policy rule for the primitive policy; and defining a plurality of composite policies based at least in part on the primitive policies; and storing the defined composite policies as policy data structures, wherein each policy data structure for a composite policy comprises a set of fields and references at least one additional policy data structure.