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The internal and external strategies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent actions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

The guiding principle of a functioning society is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the weaker. Without this, we risk being locked in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest prevails.

This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the United States, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the rule of law.

However, it is a delicate construct, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Preserving it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that society demand responsibility when they fail.

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

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the structure of civilization unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the privileged to exploit the less fortunate because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The fortunes of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to centralize wealth and power further. The military might of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Supported by political allies and an accommodating high court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you see the danger.

A direct line ties earlier transgressions to present-day menaces. Both were founded upon the hubris of absolute power.

There is parallel dynamics in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

However, raw power does not create right. It produces uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.

History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.

Such disregard for rules will plague international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.