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His national and international initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to recent actions and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to stop the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, 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. It’s also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the United States, built on collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the legal authority.

However, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Preserving it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unfettered might is not right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and hostilities.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the framework of civilization unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over much of the globe. AI is could consolidate wealth and power even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in recorded history.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic supreme court, the executive office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of the state in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.

An unbroken thread ties previous transgressions to ongoing threats. Each were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.

You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.

But, raw power does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and war.

History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also protect them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth ultimately bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for a long time.