🔗 Share this article

His national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current moves and threats – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

A ethical foundation of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a state of nature where might makes right wins.

This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the core of the postwar international order championed by the US, which stresses collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who choose to misuse their authority. Upholding it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and war.

Every time entities that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are not, the framework of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can fall into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to exploit the weaker because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The resources of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans much of the globe. AI is could consolidate economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the major powers is unprecedented in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in history.

Put it all together and you see the danger.

A direct line ties previous lawless actions to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the overconfidence of invincibility.

You see parallel dynamics in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

However, raw power does not create right. It produces fragility, upheaval, and war.

History shows that laws and norms to check the influential also shield them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.

This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.