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His domestic and foreign initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to recent incursions and warnings – weaken both national and global law. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest prevails.

This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the America, which stresses collective action, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a delicate construct, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Absolute power does not make right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and war.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are not, the structure of society weakens. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The resources of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants spans much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.

Put it all together and you see the looming crisis.

A direct line ties past breaches of norms to current provocations. Both were premised on the arrogance of absolute power.

You see much the same 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 make right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to limit the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches eventually lead to their downfall – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for international catastrophe.

This kind of disregard for rules will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.