The U.S. military incursion into Venezuela and actions targeting its President Nicolás Maduro once again expose Washington’s reliance on unilateral force to shape outcomes beyond its borders.

What is being poured onto the UN Charter and international human rights law is not gasoline, but the arrogance of power politics. Great-power status does not justify the use of force against other nations. Such actions erode the foundations of the postwar international order, revive the “law of the jungle,” and threaten global peace and stability—an approach that history will ultimately condemn.