The purpose of the fund is to carry out security and counterterrorism training, and rule of law programs.
Although decisions are to be jointly made by the Secretaries of State and Defense, the mandated mechanism puts the Secretary of State in the lead"[1] "This new Fund follows from Secretary [of Defense Robert] Gates’ proposal in December 2009 that State and DoD adopt a "pooled resources" approach like that used in the United Kingdom to strengthen their abilities to respond to situations where their missions overlap.
"[2] Admiral Michael Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time) stated in a congressional hearing that, " [the GSCF] will buy us an agile and cost-effective way to better respond to unforeseen needs and take advantage of emerging opportunities for partners to secure their own territories and regions."
The Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) is intended for either DOD or DOS to provide assistance to countries designated by Secretary of State, with the concurrence of Secretary of Defense, for the following purposes.
Any such assistance programs are to be jointly formulated by DOD and DOS with the approval of SecState and the concurrence of SecDef.