This text argues for the need to understand developments in welfare and social provision alongside the processes of globalization. In the two decades following World War II, the massive expansion of the welfare state system arguably allowed Western governments to expose their societies to uncontrollable external risks associated with the de- regulated global economic environment. The authors contend that the combination of changes in welfare and technological innovation provided the necessary conditions for globalization by limiting some of the more harmful effects of economic change. They maintain that the present climate provides a unique opportunity for policy-makers to engage constructively with globalization, warning that failure to think creatively about welfare in this context could result in governments falling back into an unhelpful and out-moded protectionist stance. Today the developed welfare state is in need of reform for various endogenous reasons. If such reforms are to work effectively, however, Leibfried and Rieger claim that governments must take into account the complex ways in which domestic social policy and external economic policy are interconnected. Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Non-economic Preconditions of Globalization Chapter 2: Welfare State Mercantilism Chapter 3: Defensive Globalization in the Welfare State: Foreign Trade Policy and Social Policy in the US Chapter 4: Two Worlds of Welfare Democracy: Global Capitalism and Social Policy Reform in Germany and the US Chapter 5: The Welfare State and Social Policy in East Asia: Religion and Globalization