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The national and international strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent moves and statements – undermine both national and global law. But that’s not all.

They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

A guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the dominant from preying upon and using the less powerful. Without this, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right prevails.

This principle is central of America’s founding documents. This is also the heart of the global system established after WWII championed by the America, built on international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public hold them accountable should they falter.

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

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are less so, the fabric of society frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can plunge into chaos and war. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the weaker because they feel untouchable.

The fortunes of certain tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers much of the globe. Advanced technology is could centralize economic and political clout even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in the annals of time.

Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of government in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you perceive the looming crisis.

A direct line ties past breaches of norms to ongoing provocations. Each were based on the overconfidence of invincibility.

You see much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

However, strength without restraint does not establish right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and armed conflict.

The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to limit the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth eventually lead to their downfall – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed civilization – for a long time.