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The national and international strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent incursions and warnings – weaken both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.

The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a conflict of all against all where might makes right prevails.

This concept lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the core of the postwar international order championed by the US, emphasizing collective action, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

However, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their power. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might does not make right. It results in instability, disruption, and hostilities.

Whenever entities that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the framework of society unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.

The resources of a small group of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is could further concentrate resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the leading countries is unmatched in human history.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic high court, the highest office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of government in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you perceive the looming crisis.

An unbroken thread connects past lawless actions to current provocations. These were founded upon the hubris of invincibility.

You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.

Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It fosters fragility, upheaval, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.

This kind of disregard for rules will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.