🔗 Share this article

The national and international initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to latest moves and threats – erode not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Failing that, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.

This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, built on international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a delicate ideal, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their power. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It leads to uncertainty, upheaval, and war.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are left unchecked, 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 global community with deepening divides. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of global industrial giants extends over numerous countries. Advanced technology is could consolidate wealth and power even more. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in human history.

Enabled by political allies and a pliant high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked agent of the state in recent memory.

Put it all together and you see the threat.

A clear connection connects previous lawless actions to ongoing menaces. Each were premised on the arrogance of invincibility.

There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not establish right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to constrain the influential also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.

This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.