🔗 Share this article

His domestic and foreign strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to latest incursions and statements – weaken both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They threaten the very concept of a civilized world.

The guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest could survive.

This principle is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the America, which stresses collective action, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a vulnerable principle, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and war.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of civilization frays. If these actions are not contained, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This invites the powerful to take advantage of the weaker because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The wealth of a small group of billionaires is staggering. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is could consolidate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the leading countries is unprecedented in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of government in history.

Consider this confluence and you see the looming crisis.

A clear connection links previous breaches of norms to current menaces. Both were premised on the hubris of absolute power.

You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.

Yet, strength without restraint does not create right. It produces fragility, revolution, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

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