rule of the sword

Madeleine understood that American power is the only thing standing between the rules-based global order and the rule of the sword.

What can we say about politics when a Government directly referred to God perished in India and Egypt; when the rule of the Sword and of the Tiara are past; when Monarchy is dying; when the Government of the People has never been alive; when no scheme of intellectual power as applied to material interests has ever proved durable, and everything at this day remains to be done all over again, as it has been at every period when man has turned to cry out, 'I am in torment!'

Thus, you see, the Germans had overthrown the rule of law in Alsace, and in place of it had set up the rule of the sword.

It was based on the rule of the sword.

Since the Cromwellian rule of the sword, the army is so hated in England that an officer, going on duty from his home to the barracks, has to drive in a closed carriage.—O.A.H.