His internal and external policies – including the attempted coup five years ago to latest moves and warnings – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions endanger the core idea of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest could survive.
This concept is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society demand responsibility if they don't.
Absolute power does not equal right. It results in instability, disruption, and conflict.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are weaker, the fabric of civilization weakens. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can plunge into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the elite to exploit the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The resources of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is could centralize economic and political clout even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of government in history.
Put it all together and you see the threat.
A clear connection connects earlier transgressions to current threats. Both were based on the hubris of absolute power.
One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.
Yet, raw power does not create right. It makes for fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.
