The "notion" of a Global Security Industry Alliance (GSIA) is not a new one and certainly over the years there have been many industry visionaries from various countries and security organizations around the world who have proposed some iteration of what would constitute such an Alliance. Yet for whatever the mitigating reasons the timing did not prove right for those visions to be realized. Then in 2001, during the CPSE security trade show in Shenzhen, China, a cooperative agreement between a US security trade association and a Chinese security trade association laid the foundation for what was to become the GSIA.

Steady and regular dialogue over the next four years culminated in 2005 at the SST Show in Moscow where the GSIA concept was formally given structure on the back of a napkin after a long exchange between international delegates over dinner in a small Moscow restaurant.

Aligning with the growing global focus on emerging markets, the Alliance was founded by five security trade associations from the "BRIC" countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and United States. These associations would work over the next four years to evolve from a voluntary non-binding partnership into an independently run and registered Hong Kong-entity with a headquarters and staff located in Shenzhen, China.

In 2009, under the leadership of the Shenzhen Security and Protection Industry Association (SSPIA), during the CPSE Show in Shenzhen, the Alliance gained 30 members, a revised charter, structure, and new headquarters location. At that show over 25 countries met and signed on to a non-binding global security industry declaration that was to become the charter for the new GSIA.

The original Alliance concept in 2001 was simple: "win-win" strategic cooperation- we all work to find ways to successfully support each other and by extension the entire security industry and community. To this day this founding principle has stayed at the heart of everything the Alliance does on behalf of its members and the entire global security community. It is an organization that supports the founding charter principles of fairness, honesty, innovation, sharing, communication, and strategic cooperation.

Today the GSIA serves as a business and shared information resource for the global security community. The GSIA’s programs and services are designed to be used interchangeably at either the Local or Global level. While GSIA works at the global level to actively promote industry resources and organizations, it also works to find ways to bring those global resources to support the local activities of its individual Alliance Members and Strategic Partners. This local support is often in a "behind the scenes" customized role so as not to overshadow or distract from the prominence of the Alliance member GSIA is there to support.

The GSIA mantra of "Thinking Locally - Acting Globally" underscores the GSIA's value as a force-multiplier resource and platform for like-minded organizations that are working towards the common goal of a safer and more secure global community.