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The national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to latest incursions and threats – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the very concept of civilization itself.

The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the weaker. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.

This ideal is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the United States, which stresses collective action, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a delicate ideal, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Maintaining it demands that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It makes for instability, chaos, and conflict.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the fabric of society weakens. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can fall into chaos and war. It has happened before.

Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to exploit the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The resources of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants extends over much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to further concentrate wealth and power further. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unmatched in recorded history.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic high court, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of government in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you perceive the threat.

An unbroken thread connects past transgressions to ongoing provocations. These were based on the arrogance of invincibility.

You see much the same in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters instability, revolution, and war.

History shows that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources ultimately cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

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