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The national and international policies – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to current moves and warnings – erode not only national and global law. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the core idea of a civilized world.

A guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest prevails.

This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their authority. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility should they falter.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.

Each instance entities that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are less so, 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. History provides ample precedent.

Our current reality is a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The resources of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power to a greater degree. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Enabled by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you see the looming crisis.

A clear connection ties earlier transgressions to present-day threats. Each were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.

You see parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, raw power does not make right. It produces instability, upheaval, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time lead to their downfall – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

This kind of contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.