1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to condemn and stop President Trump's flagrant violations of international law. The invasion of Venezuela, the capture of Nicolás Maduro, and his threats to take Greenland by force if necessary represent an unprecedented assault on the post-World War II international legal order established by the United Nations Charter of 1945. The UN Charter enshrined sovereignty as a cornerstone principle in Articles 1 and 2, establishing that the previously held right to wage wars was no longer acceptable after the immense suffering of repeated conflicts. For nearly eight decades, even when powerful states breached these principles, they maintained at least the appearance of upholding them. Trump has abandoned even this pretense. Unlike the Iraq War, which was framed as defending human rights, Trump's actions in Venezuela are grounded solely in claims that the United States has a right to Venezuela's oil. His threats against Greenland, a territory of Denmark, similarly disregard the sovereignty of our NATO ally. This represents a return to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and the pre-World War II system when nations could wage war for almost any reason. As Jorge H. Sanchez-Perez of the University of Alberta argues, this signals the collapse of the rules-based international order. The implications are dire. If the United States can invade Venezuela for its resources and threaten to seize Greenland by force, then Taiwan becomes a target for Chinese annexation and Ukraine for Russian annexation. The international legal order is being stripped of whatever value it once had. History shows us where this path leads. Legal orders that enable immoral actions while abandoning their foundational principles do not endure. The comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are not hyperbolic when a leader openly rejects international law in favor of territorial expansion and resource seizure. I urge you to publicly condemn these actions, introduce or support resolutions that reassert America's commitment to international law and sovereignty, and use every legislative tool available to constrain this administration's lawless behavior. Our credibility as a nation and the stability of the international system depend on it.