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His internal and external initiatives – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent incursions and threats – weaken both domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

These actions jeopardize the core idea of a civilized world.

The guiding principle of civilized society is to forestall the dominant from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest wins.

This principle is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the US, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

However, it is a fragile ideal, often broken by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the those in charge have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us hold them accountable should they falter.

Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to instability, upheaval, and conflict.

Whenever entities that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the structure of civilization frays. If such aggression are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a global community grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The wealth of a small group of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans numerous countries. AI is could consolidate resources and influence further. The destructive power of the leading countries is unmatched in recorded history.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a pliant judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of government in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the danger.

A direct line ties earlier breaches of norms to current threats. These were founded upon the arrogance of absolute power.

You see parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, strength without restraint does not create right. It fosters fragility, upended order, and armed conflict.

History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

This blatant lawlessness will plague international stability – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.