The 21^st century has already forecast a continuum of health security challenges that will strain current medical and public health systems. The world must now prepare for an influenza pandemic similar to the 1918 Spanish flu, the scale of which has the potential to cause catastrophic global losses to populations, civil infrastructures and economies. NATO is uniquely positioned to guide and inform regional planning, detection and response efforts to promote global health security. In June 2006, a NATO Advanced Studies Institute (ASI) in Skopje, Macedonia convened 60 participants from 11 countries over the course of two weeks to address strategies to mitigate and contain global public health and health security threats. Four key areas were identified in which NATO's leadership will be vital: convening future meetings of medical and public health experts with government officials to foster collaborative regional disease control efforts; developing health information systems to promote disease surveillance, detection and reporting; facilitating regional training and exercises to create an effective and interoperable workforce; and educating leaders in core issues relating to health security and population protection.