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His national and international policies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest moves and statements – erode both domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

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

A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest could survive.

This concept lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the postwar international order supported by the US, emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

But, it is a vulnerable principle, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Maintaining it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.

Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to instability, disruption, and hostilities.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are not, the framework of society unravels. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a international landscape with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than ever before. This encourages the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of above the law.

The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.

Empowered by political allies and a pliant high court, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of state power in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.

An unbroken thread ties earlier breaches of norms to current provocations. Each were based on the arrogance of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.

Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.

This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.