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The domestic and foreign strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process in the past to latest moves and statements – erode both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

They endanger the core idea of a civilized world.

The guiding principle of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right could survive.

This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, built on collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their influence. Upholding it demands that the powerful have enough integrity to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Absolute power is not right. It results in instability, chaos, and conflict.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the fabric of our shared norms frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a international landscape with deepening divides. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The wealth of a handful of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over numerous countries. AI is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout further. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked entity of state power in recent memory.

Put it all together and you perceive the danger.

A direct line connects earlier breaches of norms to current menaces. These were based on the overconfidence of invincibility.

You see much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for increased control and resources in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.

This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.