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His internal and external strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent incursions and warnings – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the core idea of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Without this, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right could survive.

This ideal is embedded of the nation's founding texts. This is also the heart of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, built on multilateralism, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a fragile construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Upholding it requires that the powerful have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Unfettered might does not make right. It makes for instability, disruption, and hostilities.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the framework of society frays. If these actions are not contained, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This invites the powerful to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The resources 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. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate wealth and power to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the presidency has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of the state in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

A direct line connects past lawless actions to current provocations. Each were based on the hubris of invincibility.

One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.

But, raw power does not make right. It produces instability, revolution, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to check the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches eventually cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.

This blatant lawlessness will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.