Caskets are carried outside of Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom Congregation, the scene of the funeral for brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, two of the 11 Jewish worshippers shot and killed on Oct. 27, 2018 at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Photo: Screenshot

For the last 25 years, America has measured our national security by how well it defended its perimeter: fortified borders, foreign deployments, and centralized intelligence. That model largely worked. It dismantled a number of foreign terrorist safe havens and prevented another coordinated aviation attack from abroad.

Though the US hasn’t seen another large-scale terrorist attack, the ideology that inspired Al-Qaeda and ISIS lingers, and radical Islamist extremism still poses a serious threat to US security. The hundreds of recent attacks and foiled plots in the US since 9/11 stand as witness to this ongoing and pernicious threat.

But the post-9/11 strategy cannot protect us from the new extremist threats we face today. While we must remain vigilant and not let our guard down when it comes to external threats, the next 25 years of American security will depend as much on strengthening our internal civic fabric: the schools, congregations, and community institutions where hate will either be stopped early or allowed to metastasize into violence.

This is not an abstract argument. The clearest evidence is the alarming surge in domestic antisemitic attacks and targeted hate crimes across the country. Antisemitism has always been a bellwether for the health of any society. When conspiracy theories and hatred against Jewish communities escalate, it is never an isolated phenomenon; it is an early warning that our broader social fabric is fraying.

And hatred of this kind rarely stays confined to one group. An attacker who targets a synagogue on Saturday may target a church on Sunday or a mosque on Friday. We saw this in Minneapolis, where an attacker scrawled multi-targeted hatred on weapons before attacking a Catholic school and sanctuary. We felt it in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where an active threat and attack at Temple Israel shattered the morning peace of a suburban congregation.

When violence arrives at the doorsteps of our classrooms and houses of worship, it exposes a sobering truth: A national defense architecture built to track foreign conspirators cannot, on its own, secure the local spaces where average Americans gather and where our children learn.

Twenty-five years ago last week, the attacks of Sept. 11 redefined American security around fortified borders, foreign deployments, and centralized intelligence. In the months that followed, our nation reorganized federal agencies, revolutionized intelligence sharing, and rebuilt aviation security from the tarmac up. That massive investment accomplished its core mission, but given the current threats, that work is never done.

A quarter-century later, the frontline of national security is not just at an airport checkpoint, a maritime border, or in the mountains of South Asia. It is inside our civic spaces, our digital feeds, and our local neighborhoods.

The threat landscape driving this shift is profoundly decentralized. Modern violent extremism does not rely on complex international logistics or hierarchical overseas command structures. Instead, algorithmic pipelines, transnational digital echo chambers, and weaponized grievances radicalize individuals where they live. Extremism, hate, and violence are now a click away, accelerating vulnerable individuals down pathways toward horrific violence.

Traditional security models cannot arrest, indict, or surveil our way out of online exposure to violence and extremism, domestic extremism, and societal polarization. Tactical law enforcement response remains indispensable when an active crisis erupts, but it is a reactive measure, not a prevention strategy. True security in the modern era relies, in part, on civil society, early non-coercive intervention and community resilience. In other words, not law enforcement alone.

This requires transforming how we view public safety from the ground up. Civil society is not merely a beneficiary of protection; it is our most potent security multiplier. When we invest in community-based institutions such as schools, faith organizations, civic groups, and local nonprofits, we create frontline defenses capable of recognizing the warning signs and offering constructive off-ramps long before radical rhetoric turns into violence.

Building this resilience demands three tangible commitments:

• Physical and operational hardening: Sustain and expand crucial resources like the Federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, ensuring schools and faith institutions have the access-controls, emergency preparedness, and physical infrastructure necessary to protect their people.

• Deepened police-community partnerships: Foster continuous, trust-based communication between municipal police departments, school superintendents and faith leaders. Joint active-threat planning and two-way information sharing ensure that when seconds matter, the response is synchronized.

• Prevention policies and digital literacy: Confront the online ecosystems that feed grievance and glorify violence, equip educators and parents with the tools to spot radicalization early, and invest in voluntary intervention pathways.

Fortifying our borders was the defining mandate of the post-9/11 era. Protecting the next generation demands that we also invest in our people, empower our local communities, and fortify the civic bonds that hold this nation together.

George Selim serves as Executive Vice President of ADL. Prior to his roles at ADL, he served in the administrations of Bush, Obama and Trump in senior roles at DHS and the NSC.