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The internal and external policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election previously to recent incursions and statements – undermine not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

A guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being trapped in a conflict of all against all where might makes right wins.

This concept is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the America, emphasizing international cooperation, democratic governance, human rights, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it requires 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.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It leads to uncertainty, disruption, and hostilities.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of civilization weakens. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Our current reality is a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the weaker because they feel untouchable.

The wealth of certain tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants extends over much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to centralize resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in history.

Put it all together and you see the threat.

An unbroken thread connects previous breaches of norms to ongoing provocations. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of invincibility.

There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

Yet, strength without restraint does not create right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources eventually bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

Such disregard for rules will haunt America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.