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

They threaten the very concept of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.

This concept is embedded of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, which stresses multilateralism, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a delicate construct, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it requires that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

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

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the fabric of society frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to exploit the weaker because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of certain billionaires is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.

Supported by complicit legislators and a pliant supreme court, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in history.

Put it all together and you see the danger.

An unbroken thread ties past breaches of norms to current menaces. Each were premised on the hubris of invincibility.

One observes much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.

This blatant lawlessness will haunt international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.