Juliette Kayyem is a lecturer in international security at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She was a U.S. assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama and is the author of Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home.
Since 9/11, national-security officials have made policy on a myth of American invulnerability. They should have been preparing everyday citizens for the worst in order to make the country stronger.