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The national and international strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process previously to latest actions and statements – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

The moral purpose of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right wins.

This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

However, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It leads to instability, upheaval, and war.

Each instance entities that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the framework of society unravels. If such aggression are not contained, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.

The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in recorded history.

Empowered by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the looming crisis.

An unbroken thread ties earlier transgressions to current provocations. Each were premised on the arrogance of invincibility.

There is much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, raw power does not create right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to limit the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.

This blatant disregard for rules will plague international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.