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The internal and external initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process in the past to latest moves and warnings – undermine not only national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Without this, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.

This concept is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the core of the postwar international order supported by the America, built on multilateralism, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

But, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it demands that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It results in instability, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the framework of civilization frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.

The wealth of a small group of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. AI is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of state power in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you perceive the looming crisis.

A direct line connects previous lawless actions to ongoing threats. Both were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.

There is parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It makes for fragility, revolution, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources ultimately bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.

This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.