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The domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the attempted coup previously to recent moves and statements – erode both national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of a functioning society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Otherwise, we risk being locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest could survive.

This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the America, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

However, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility when they fail.

Absolute power is not right. It leads to uncertainty, upheaval, and war.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the framework of society frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The fortunes of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. AI is could further concentrate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in history.

Put it all together and you perceive the danger.

An unbroken thread connects earlier transgressions to present-day menaces. Both were based on the hubris of omnipotence.

There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, strength without restraint does not create right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.

History shows that rules and conventions to limit the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches ultimately cause their collapse – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.

This blatant lawlessness will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.