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The national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent incursions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

They threaten the very concept of what we mean by.

The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Without this, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.

This concept is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the core of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.

However, it is a delicate construct, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their authority. Maintaining it requires that the powerful have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Absolute power does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, disruption, and war.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are not, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a global community with deepening divides. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than ever before. This encourages the elite to take advantage of the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The fortunes of certain billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers much of the globe. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unmatched in human history.

Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic supreme court, the executive office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of government in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you perceive the danger.

A clear connection ties past transgressions to ongoing provocations. These were premised on the hubris of absolute power.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to check the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

This kind of contempt for legal order will plague America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.