A Plague On All of Their Houses

By Rebecca Kennedy, The Observer, Chelsea, Wednesday 4th March 2026

The End of Honour: From Absurdity to Global Thuggery By Martyn Jones (martyn.es, 2025)

In the grand sweep of history, as Paul Kennedy might observe, empires rise and fall not merely through the clash of arms or the ebb of economic tides, but through the erosion of moral sinews that bind societies and their leaders. Martyn Jones’s The End of Honour echoes this Kennedy-esque thesis, charting the precipitous decline of integrity in global politics from the unipolar illusions of the post-Cold War era to the brazen thuggery of contemporary strongmen. Written over a quarter-century, this sprawling polemic, part historical autopsy, part diplomatic jeremiad, dissects how the United States, once the self-anointed guardian of liberal order, has devolved into a “basket case” of strategic incoherence, abetted by neoliberal hubris and neoconservative adventurism. Jones, a data strategist turned contrarian commentator, draws on a lifetime of observation, from Welsh nationalism to Spanish socialism, to argue that honour’s demise has unleashed a world of “global thuggery,” where power is wielded not with restraint but as a blunt instrument of self-interest.

Jones’s narrative unfolds with the non-linear flair of a van Creveld analysis, less a chronological march than a tactical dissection of ideological battlefields. He begins by lamenting the “loss of meaning” in politics, where postmodern relativism has hollowed out traditional virtues. Honour, he posits, is not mere chivalry but a strategic asset: the glue of alliances, the restraint on excess, and the foundation of credible diplomacy. In chapters like “What Does Honour Mean?” and “The Honourable,” Jones invokes historical exemplars, from Golda Meir’s Zionism to Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, as counterpoints to today’s charlatans. Yet his gaze fixes relentlessly on the American colossus, whose “unipolar moment” under George W. Bush squandered global goodwill in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan. Here, Jones channels van Creveld’s critique of technological overreach: the neoconservative “grand strategy,” underpinned by figures like Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney, is exposed as a fusion of ideological zeal and corporate greed, transforming the Pentagon into a vending machine for Lockheed Martin and Halliburton.

Diplomatically, Jones’s prose resonates with Chris Patten’s urbane scepticism, particularly in his evisceration of transatlantic ties. Trump’s presidency emerges as the nadir, a “Cirque du Soleil of rampant irresponsibility” where alliances are commodified into protection rackets. Jones skewers Trump’s NATO demands, insisting on 5% GDP spending on US arms, as less a security measure than “transactional extortion,” risking fractures with the EU. Spain, singled out for Trump’s tariff threats, exemplifies this bullying; as Jones notes, punishing Madrid means confronting Brussels, a miscalculation that could unravel the post-1945 order. Echoing Patten’s warnings on authoritarian drift, Jones extends his critique to Elon Musk, dubbed “eNoddy the Battery Boy,” whose unelected influence on policy, from AI hype to space ventures, represents a new frontier of unaccountable power. Musk’s alliance with Trump, Jones argues, fuses Silicon Valley libertarianism with populist demagoguery, eroding diplomatic norms in favour of “hate speech stages” like X.

Strategically, the book aligns with Kennedy’s emphasis on overextension. Neoliberalism, unmasked as a doctrine of “global monopolistic corporate capitalism,” is traced from its Mont Pelerin roots to Reagan’s deregulation, fostering inequality that breeds populism. Jones connects the dots: the 2003 Iraq invasion, justified by “lies, damn lies” in Bush’s State of the Union, not only drained US coffers but sowed Middle Eastern chaos, empowering fundamentalists and eroding honour’s remnants. Appendices amplify this, from “Foreign Interference: The Big Lie” debunking election myths to “Sieg Heil to All That: Trump 2 Unhinged,” a prescient warning of authoritarian resurgence. In a van Creveld-like pivot to asymmetric threats, Jones highlights “fifty shades of racism” and water privatisation as weapons of the elite, where honour’s absence permits the commodification of essentials, exacerbating global divides.

Yet, as the Financial Times might caution in its measured columns, Jones’s passion occasionally outpaces precision. His left-leaning dedications—to figures like Tony Benn, José Mujica, and Karl Marx—infuse the text with ideological verve, but risk alienating readers seeking balance. Critiques of Zionism as veiled nationalism (Appendix F) are provocative, urging semantic clarity to temper discourse, yet they tread close to oversimplification amid Israel’s complexities. Similarly, his dismissal of Biden-Harris as “Zionist fluffers” veers into polemic excess, underplaying diplomatic nuances like the Iran nuclear deal’s revival attempts. The book’s collage-like structure, while evocative of political chaos, can feel disjointed, with diagrams in Appendix H offering visual respite but little analytical depth.

Nevertheless, in this March 2026 vantage, amid Trump’s potential resurgence and Musk’s orbital ambitions, Jones’s warnings ring with urgency. As Kennedy chronicled the perils of imperial overstretch, so Jones foresees a multipolar world where honour’s vacuum invites thuggery from Beijing to Brasília. For diplomats like Patten, it underscores the fragility of alliances; for strategists like van Creveld, it highlights honour as a force multiplier in asymmetric eras. Investors and policymakers, per FT counsel, should heed its economic undertones: tariffs as weapons, AI as “black tulips,” and corporate capture as systemic risks.

The End of Honour is no dispassionate ledger but a fiery indictment, compelling us to confront whether global leadership can reclaim virtue amid absurdity. In a world tilting toward autocracy, Jones reminds us: without honour, strategy devolves into survival, diplomacy into deal-making, and power into predation. Essential reading for those navigating the ruins of the liberal order.