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The domestic and foreign strategies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent incursions and statements – undermine both domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the very concept of civilization itself.

The moral purpose of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.

This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the foundation of the postwar international order championed by the US, built on international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

However, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength is not right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are less so, the fabric of civilization unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This encourages the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The wealth of certain tycoons is staggering. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is poised to centralize wealth and power further. The offensive capability of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.

Enabled by political allies and an accommodating high court, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

A clear connection ties past transgressions to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the arrogance of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in international affairs: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters fragility, upheaval, and armed conflict.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth ultimately cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will haunt international stability – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.