Story highlights Juliette Kayyem: With the anniversary of 9/11 approaching, many ask are we safe yet?

Though we can never be fully safe, we can minimize our risk, maximize our national defenses and lift our spirits

CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem is the author of the best-selling "Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home." She is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School, a former assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration and founder of Kayyem Solutions, a security consulting firm. As widely reported, on Friday Kayyem is meeting with Hillary Clinton to discuss homeland security issues. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) Are we safe? The question, as we approach the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, is a fair one to ask given the investments, money and wars we have fought in an effort to protect this nation. But it is also misleading. It assumes that there is some place, some zone of safety, that we can reach, claim victory and then move onto other efforts.

There is not. The question assumes that on September 10, 2001, we were living free from risk and without vulnerabilities. But a nation like ours -- where the flow of people, goods and ideas are essential to our fabric -- was built unsafely.

Juliette Kayyem

Having spent a career in homeland security, I now believe the most realistic way to think about our safety is to focus less on some place where we need to be, and more on the efforts and investments around three important standards.

First, are our efforts better able to minimize any risks? While September 11 made us focus on homeland security, it was actually Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that forced a course correction. It reminded us that a nation too concentrated on one threat -- 19 men on four airplanes -- could not save an American city from drowning. After Katrina, the homeland security apparatus began to shift , recognizing it needed to nurture its prevention and response capabilities against all threats. The idea, known as all-hazards planning, prepares first responders and public safety officials working to protect lives against a variety of potential threats. It is what guides us today in addressing the changing face of terror, hurricanes, oil spills, cyberattacks, bio-warfare, tornadoes, Zika and whatever mayhem may come our way.

Second, are our efforts better adept at maximizing national defenses? The focus on "national" is important. From airport security to hardening soft targets to protecting our cybernetworks, our capacity to protect ourselves isn't so much the responsibility of one federal agency -- mainly the Department of Homeland Security -- but national efforts engaging local and state authorities, the private sector, multiple federal agencies, the international community and the American public.

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