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The national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent actions and warnings – weaken not only domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Without this, we would be trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.

This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a fragile ideal, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility when they fail.

Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and war.

Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the framework of our shared norms frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize economic and political clout even more. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.

Put it all together and you see the danger.

An unbroken thread connects past lawless actions to present-day menaces. These were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.

But, strength without restraint does not create right. It produces instability, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.

This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.