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The domestic and foreign policies – including the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent moves and threats – weaken not only national and global law. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the core idea of civilization itself.

The moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.

This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the postwar international order championed by the US, built on international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

However, it is a vulnerable principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their influence. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the structure of civilization unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can plunge into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.

The wealth of a small group of billionaires is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. AI is likely to consolidate economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the major powers is without parallel in the annals of time.

Enabled by a compliant faction and a pliant supreme court, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the looming crisis.

A direct line ties earlier lawless actions to ongoing menaces. Each were based on the hubris of invincibility.

There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.

However, strength without restraint does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to limit the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources eventually bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will plague America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.