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His domestic and foreign strategies – including the effort to overturn the election in the past to latest actions and threats – undermine both national and global law. But that’s not all.

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

The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to stop the dominant from preying upon and using the weaker. Otherwise, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.

This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

But, it is a fragile ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the powerful have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It results in instability, chaos, and hostilities.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are less so, the framework of civilization frays. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into instability and violence. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a international landscape with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.

The resources of a handful of tycoons is staggering. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the major powers is unmatched in recorded history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of government in history.

Combine these factors and you see the danger.

A direct line links earlier lawless actions to current menaces. These were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see parallel dynamics in international affairs: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

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

History shows that frameworks designed to check the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.

Such contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.