Three times the world has tried. It has failed twice. And recent events suggest it is about to fail a third time.

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At what? Setting up an international system to prevent catastrophic wars between major powers that inflict massive civilian casualties and destruction of property and cultural assets.

The first time was the Concert of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. The second was the League of Nations after World War I. And the third was the United Nations and related international institutions after World War II.

Without drastic life support, the third is in a death spiral, epitomised by the statement from US President Donald Trump saying: "I don't need international law." That statement came after US forces invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president.

Some history will illustrate the ghastly ramifications of what Trump has done and said in the past fortnight.

In a way, the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) was the first world war, affecting multiple major nations and fought across vast areas. It was characterised by huge cost to civilians in life, limb and property.

After the peace was hammered out at the Congress of Vienna, the UK, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and France joined to form the Concert of Europe. It was unlike earlier peace treaties which just divided the spoils and cost among the victors and vanquished.

Rather, it joined all the major powers into an agreement to engage in diplomatic and collective action to prevent large-scale wars. For the first time there was a sense that modern war had no victors because they were all-out wars.

With a couple of small exceptions, it brought nearly a century of peace among the great powers and there was no war in which all major powers joined in. Diplomacy triumphed until nationalism, jingoism, and autocratic leaders over-shadowed any warnings about the horror and cost of war and the big powers entered World War I in 1914 - 22 million died, more........

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