The main starting point for these different activities was the recognition that researchers and practitioners from social policy and international development studies increasingly face similar emerging global policy challenges at conceptual, methodological, technical and practitioner levels. In a world that is rapidly changing, increasingly connected and uncertain, the need and opportunity for fruitful intellectual collaboration between the two academic fields of inquiry is greater than ever. This Special Issue intends to take this initiative forward by covering different perspectives and approaches that examine the intellectual distinction between social policy and international development studies and look to develop a shared theoretical framework for global applied policy analysis. More specifically, it aims to explore the role of productivist and protective welfare activities and provide new insights into the particularities of global (informal) welfare regimes and the cross-cultural complexities of policy-making in the post-2008 financial crisis era.