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The national and international policies – including the attempted coup in the past to recent actions and threats – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.

The guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Without this, we risk being locked in a state of nature where might makes right wins.

This ideal lies at the center of America’s founding documents. It is equally the foundation of the global system established after WWII championed by the US, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a vulnerable ideal, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that society demand responsibility if they don't.

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

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of our shared norms weakens. If these actions are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of global industrial giants spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power even more. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic high court, the highest office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked agent of state power in history.

Combine these factors and you perceive the danger.

A direct line connects previous lawless actions to current provocations. These were founded upon the hubris of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

But, raw power does not create right. It makes for instability, revolution, and war.

History shows that rules and conventions to check the influential also shield them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time cause their collapse – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.