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The national and international initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to current incursions and threats – weaken not only national and global law. But that’s not all.

They endanger the very concept of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to stop the stronger from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest wins.

This ideal is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the heart of the global system established after WWII advocated by the America, emphasizing international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the influential have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to uncertainty, disruption, and war.

Whenever entities that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are less so, the framework of civilization weakens. If such aggression are not contained, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into chaos and war. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.

The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The reach of global industrial giants extends over numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate economic and political clout further. The destructive power of the leading countries is unmatched in the annals of time.

Supported by complicit legislators and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in history.

Put it all together and you perceive the threat.

An unbroken thread ties past lawless actions to current provocations. These were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

But, unfettered might does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.

This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and indeed civilization – for a long time.