I started this paper with the objective of reviewing the literature on globalisation and welfare state in East Asia but quickly found that there was little available to review. Not only are there few published works on the topic, they are often too general or abstract to enlighten the subject. I accordingly redefined the paper's objective as reviewing the arguments on globalisation's impact on the Western welfare state and relating them to social welfare in East Asia. I will argue that globalisation's impact on social welfare in East Asia is even more multi-faceted and divergent than is the case in the Western world, due to domestic political conditions specific to the region.