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The internal and external strategies – including the attempted coup five years ago to latest actions and warnings – erode not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

They endanger the very concept of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.

This concept lies at the center of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that the public hold them accountable should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It results in turmoil, disruption, and war.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are weaker, the framework of civilization frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the weaker because they feel untouchable.

The wealth of certain tycoons is staggering. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate resources and influence even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of the state in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.

A clear connection ties previous transgressions to present-day threats. These were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It fosters instability, upended order, and armed conflict.

The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to constrain the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

Such contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for the foreseeable future.