🔗 Share this article

The national and international strategies – from the attempted coup five years ago to latest moves and warnings – erode both national and global law. The implications are broader.

They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Without this, we could find ourselves locked in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.

This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the heart of the postwar international order supported by the US, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.

But, it is a fragile ideal, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their power. Upholding it demands that the those in charge have enough integrity to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable if they don't.

Absolute power is not right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are less so, the fabric of society frays. If such aggression are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to exploit the less fortunate because they feel untouchable.

The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate economic and political clout even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of government in the modern era.

Put it all together and you see the looming crisis.

An unbroken thread connects earlier lawless actions to current threats. These were based on the arrogance of absolute power.

One observes a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters fragility, revolution, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.

This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed civilization – for years to come.