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His domestic and foreign strategies – from the effort to overturn the election in the past to current incursions and threats – undermine not only national and global law. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to prevent the dominant from preying upon and using the weaker. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right wins.

This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the America, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

However, it is a delicate ideal, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable when they fail.

Unfettered might is not right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and conflict.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are advantaged prey upon those that are weaker, the structure of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The resources of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of global industrial giants extends over numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to consolidate resources and influence to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unmatched in recorded history.

Empowered by complicit legislators and a pliant high court, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.

An unbroken thread connects past transgressions to ongoing threats. These were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.

There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.

Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters uncertainty, revolution, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to limit the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.

This blatant lawlessness will haunt America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.