After 1989, as bipolarity lost its analytical persuasiveness, the global social policy (GSP) approach emerged as an innovative way to consider the role of international organisations and the impact of their policy interventions. The GSP approach, advocated by Bob Deacon and his colleagues, has developed at least two central orientations: (a) considerations of the role played by international organisations within globalisation processes that impact peoples’ wellbeing in different contexts and (b) normative considerations based on the possibilities of thinking of alternative roles for international organisations to address commonly observed global wellbeing problems. In the present volume, Deacon, by concentrating on the emergence of policy on social protection floors, presents a new stage both in the development of GSP thinking and as a way to analyse this development.

The book provides an extensive anatomy of this policy process. It focuses on the way the International Labour Organisation (ILO) articulated the policy guidelines on social protection floors (SPFs) as recommendations for all countries. By focusing on SPF discussions as an entry point, Deacon presents a look at the intense policy development process within the ILO over a decade starting from 2000. Chapter 2 locates both the development of SPFs within the ILO and the ILO in relation to global socio-economic changes and series of policy discourses. Deacon argues that the ILO, along with a number of other UN bodies, was concerned with the way in which the global poverty debate was framed by the World Bank and the IMF. This focus was limited to employment-based benefits and it has only provided limited safety-net-based strategies for developing countries to deal with poverty that had implications for broader populations. Deacon also talks about a number of opportunities which have allowed the ILO and like-minded organisations to develop their SPF positions linked with the broader global policy debates. These include: the emergence and acceptance of cash-transfer policies as important policy interventions, particularly in Latin America, and the political context created by the 2008 financial crisis.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 closely analyse the development of SPFs by initially looking at the influence of various individuals on the development of SPFs as a policy relevant idea in the ILO as they changed positions within this bureaucracy. Then the focus is on the way the same individuals promoted and engaged within the ILO to develop a common ground across its tripartite governance structure and finally how the ILO and individuals were involved with SPF policy work within the broader UN context, with the World Bank and the IMF. The final chapters reflect on the implications of this developmental process and on the final result when SPFs become a global policy.

Through the story of SPFs, the book contributes to the GSP literature in a number of ways. By looking at how the policy focus within the ILO changed, from having a focus on workers’ livelihoods to the larger populations, the dynamics of intra-organisational discussions and challenges are highlighted. It shows that international organisations are not internally homogenous policy machines. Furthermore, the richly documented analysis of individuals in structural positions highlights how the agency of people impacts policy processes. It shows that there are always multiple policy options and discourses on problems identified and that the choice of policy formulation is dependent on the available windows of opportunity for change and the institutional dynamics.

Another important aspect of the analysis is the way Deacon pays close attention to the language of policy documents. He identifies changes in the language of SPFs over time. He uses these, together with interviews and observations, to understand how different organisational dynamics are represented in negotiations of what appears to be the small changes in the wording of the documents. This presents an important methodological approach by highlighting the link between language use and its effects on global policy processes.

Inevitably, in a focused analysis a number of questions remain unanswered. Some of these are: How did the link between the ILO and UNICEF from the beginning influence the recommendations? Why is it that in the 2012 ILO process ‘no government attempted seriously to rock the boat’ in accepting the recommendations on SPFs (p. 96)? Furthermore, the question of how to fund a global policy in this area remains a major challenge. Although the book talks about various discussions on a global fund approach, future studies need to closely consider the grounds on which this could be built by taking into account the various debates on alternative global resource allocation mechanisms. The role of civil society participation in global policy debates is another area for further research, for instance: How do international civil servants as policy entrepreneurs relate their work to broader civil society groups? What are the mechanisms of feedback for those civil society organisations participating in global debates to link their policy work with people in multiple country contexts?

Independent of these questions, however, in this book Deacon provides an important contribution to our understanding of the global policy process and presents an important methodological example of research to guide researchers in this field. The book should be compulsory reading for people interested in GSP, international organisations and policy processes in general.