Trump's Approach Pose a Threat to Civilization.

His national and international initiatives – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest moves and statements – undermine both domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

These actions threaten the core idea of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right wins.

This ideal lies at the center of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the postwar international order championed by the America, built on collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

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

Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to instability, disruption, and war.

Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the structure of our shared norms unravels. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a international landscape with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The resources of a small group of tycoons is staggering. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the leading countries is unmatched in the annals of time.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in history.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

An unbroken thread connects past breaches of norms to current threats. These were based on the overconfidence of invincibility.

There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It fosters fragility, upended order, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to check the powerful also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.

This kind of lawlessness will haunt international stability – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.