🔗 Share this article

The internal and external policies – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to latest moves and threats – undermine not only domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

They threaten the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

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

This ideal is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the postwar international order supported by the US, built on collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law.

Yet, it is a fragile ideal, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.

Absolute power does not make right. It results in uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the framework of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The fortunes of certain tycoons is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers much of the globe. Advanced technology is could further concentrate wealth and power further. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the looming crisis.

A direct line connects past breaches of norms to current provocations. Each were based on the hubris of invincibility.

You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.

Yet, strength without restraint does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to limit the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.

This kind of disregard for rules will haunt international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.