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His internal and external policies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent incursions and warnings – weaken not only national and global law. But that’s not all.

These actions endanger the core idea of civilization itself.

A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Without this, we would be trapped in a conflict of all against all where might makes right prevails.

This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

However, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for instability, disruption, and conflict.

Each instance entities that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are less so, the framework of society frays. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The wealth of a handful of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unmatched in recorded history.

Empowered by complicit legislators and a pliant high court, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in history.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the threat.

An unbroken thread links past lawless actions to current menaces. Each were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see much the same in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It produces uncertainty, upended order, and armed conflict.

History shows that laws and norms to constrain the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for increased control and resources eventually bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for years to come.