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The national and international initiatives – including the attempted coup five years ago to current actions and threats – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Otherwise, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.

This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. It is equally the heart of the modern framework of international relations supported by the America, emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

But, it is a delicate principle, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the public hold them accountable if they don't.

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

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the fabric of our shared norms weakens. If these actions are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to consolidate resources and influence further. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in human history.

Empowered by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of state power in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you see the looming crisis.

A direct line links previous breaches of norms to present-day provocations. These were premised on the hubris of absolute power.

You see parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

But, raw power does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches eventually cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.

Such disregard for rules will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.