Since the events of September 11, 2001, the concept of homeland security has achieved prominence in mainstream political discourse and institutional form in the domestic policies of many NATO members and international partners. Homeland security is assessed in this discussion as a development that is continuous with national security. Insofar as this is the case, its utility is constrained by a definition that establishes the principal site of the security – the homeland – in a bounded and limited form. This excludes and potentially marginalises identities, territories and interests that fall outside its meanings, in turn calling into question the efficacy of homeland security as a vehicle of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, pointing to the requirement for a more comprehensive conception in keeping with the demands and complexity of an irreversibly globalized security environment. To address this lacuna, the concept of ‘human security,’ established as a practical approach within the United Nations Development Report of 1994, is outlined. Uncertainties surrounding its development indicate that security itself is a concept in transition that is located and developed within the context of globalization and cosmopolitan risk that are characteristic of the Risk Society thesis expounded by Ulrich Beck. Human security does not present itself as a simple alternative to, or replacement for, established models of physical and territorial security. In establishing an agenda for security that exceeds these conventional boundaries it does, however, enable a necessary rethinking of both conceptual limits and practical materializations of security in response to the challenges and possibilities that globalization presents. Elements of this rethinking are considered in the context of ongoing NATO operations in Afghanistan, and the relevance of human security to the reformulation of NATO's strategic concept noted.