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.

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.

The thin screen which the continuance of a little knot of representatives had thrown over the rule of the sword was at last torn away.