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The internal and external initiatives – including the attempted coup in the past to recent moves and warnings – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to prevent 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 survival of the strongest wins.

This concept is central of the nation's founding texts. This is also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, emphasizing multilateralism, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable when they fail.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It leads to turmoil, upheaval, and hostilities.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the structure of our shared norms weakens. If these actions are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Our current reality is a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the weaker because they feel untouchable.

The wealth of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate wealth and power further. The military might of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Supported by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of state power in history.

Consider this confluence and you see the threat.

A clear connection connects previous transgressions to ongoing menaces. Both were founded upon the arrogance of omnipotence.

There is a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

But, unfettered might does not establish right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and armed conflict.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to constrain the influential also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.

Such contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for years to come.