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The domestic and foreign policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election previously to current incursions and threats – erode not only domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

A guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Without this, we would be trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.

This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the core of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a fragile construct, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the powerful have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility when they fail.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and conflict.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are less so, the framework of our shared norms unravels. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a international landscape with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.

Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in history.

Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.

A clear connection ties earlier transgressions to present-day provocations. Both were founded upon the overconfidence of invincibility.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It makes for fragility, upheaval, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources in time bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for international catastrophe.

This blatant disregard for rules will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.