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His domestic and foreign strategies – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest moves and threats – erode both domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the very concept of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Failing that, we risk being locked in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.

This concept is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations supported by the United States, which stresses multilateralism, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.

But, it is a delicate construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, chaos, and war.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of civilization frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.

Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to exploit the weaker because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The resources of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants spans much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to centralize economic and political clout even more. The military might of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in recorded history.

Enabled by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in recent memory.

Put it all together and you see the looming crisis.

A direct line links previous breaches of norms to present-day provocations. These were based on the hubris of omnipotence.

You see much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It makes for fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.

History shows that frameworks designed to check the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches ultimately cause their collapse – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten global conflict.

This kind of contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.