GOOD STRATEGY REBELLION

Tag: books

  • The Crisis of Honour in Global Governance – Book Review

    The Crisis of Honour in Global Governance – Book Review

    A Plague On All of Their Houses

    THE END OF HONOUR: FROM ABSURDITY TO GLOBAL THUGGERY

    By Virginia Stephens, Madrid, 4th March 2026

    History, as Paul Kennedy observed in the pages that mapped the rise and fall of the great powers, does not announce its turning points with fanfare. It discloses them, reluctantly, through the accumulated weight of institutional decay, strategic overreach, and, most damningly, the erosion of the codes of conduct that once constrained even the most ruthless of statecraft. Martyn Jones, in this sprawling, ferocious, and occasionally magnificent polemic, has written something that Kennedy’s tradition demands we take seriously: a diagnosis of civilisational decline rooted not in balance-of-payments deficits or military overextension alone, but in the collapse of honour as an operational principle of governance.

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  • The Decline of Honour in Global Politics – Book Review

    The Decline of Honour in Global Politics – Book Review

    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.

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  • Global Thuggery and the Erosion of Democracy Explained – Book Review

    Global Thuggery and the Erosion of Democracy Explained – Book Review

    A Plague On All of Their Houses

    By Rebecca Kennedy, The Charmed World Literary Supplement, Madrid, Wednesday 4th March 2026

    In his latest work, The End of Honour: From Absurdity to Global Thuggery, Martyn Jones presents a searing, non-linear “collage of collapse” that chronicles the steady erosion of political integrity and the rise of a “surrealist theatre” in global governance. Drawing on a quarter-century of observation, Jones argues that the democratic institutions we once revered as “pillars of integrity” have been hollowed out, replaced by a “theology of managerialism” and a “moronic embrace of the void”.

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  • BOOK REVIEW: Good vs Bad Leadership: Key Insights

    BOOK REVIEW: Good vs Bad Leadership: Key Insights

    Good Leader / Bad Leader – Martyn Jones

    By Stephanie Charming, Madrid, Tuesday 3rd March 2026

    Leadership

    In the annals of leadership literature, few works pierce the fog of modern managerial sophistry with the precision of a well-aimed bayonet charge. Martyn Jones’s Good Leader/Bad Leader: The Difference and Why It Matters stands as a clarion call to arms, a treatise that dissects the anatomy of command with the surgical acuity of Sun Tzu and the unflinching moral rigour of Marcus Aurelius. As a veteran strategist in the digital trenches, once hailed as one of the world’s top database minds, Jones draws not from ivory-tower abstractions but from the bloodied fields of corporate and public service battles. His book is no mere manual; it is a manifesto for the embattled leader, a compass for navigating the treacherous terrains of human ambition and institutional decay.

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  • STRAIGHT TALK: The Enduring Bond Between Wales and Zionism – and Its Bitter Unravelling

    STRAIGHT TALK: The Enduring Bond Between Wales and Zionism – and Its Bitter Unravelling

    The Enduring Bond Between Wales and Zionism – and Its Bitter Unravelling

    Sir Afilonius Rex in Tel Aviv. Monday 24th February 2026.

    In the misty valleys of Wales, where chapel bells once echoed with the thunder of Old Testament prophets, a profound affinity for Judaism and Zionism took root. This connection, woven from scripture, sympathy, and the shared fire of small nations, has long pulsed through Welsh history. It speaks in lyrical cadences, alliterative and incantatory, evoking green hills and golden psalms By that rolled like the sea in miners’ lungs. Here, the Bible burned brighter than coal seams; children learned of Jerusalem before their own rivers, with Jordan flowing through hymns and Zion a living heartbeat.

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  • STRAIGHT TALK: The Promised Banality of Evil – Revisited

    STRAIGHT TALK: The Promised Banality of Evil – Revisited

    Sir Afilonius Rex

    Tel Aviv, 16th February 2026

    The relations between Wales, Judaism, and Zionism weave a tale as old as the hills. It is as tangled as the roots beneath them. These are threads of scripture, sympathy, small nations’ stubborn fire, and biblical thunder from the valleys. This comes to us in the voices of the past; lyrical, rhythmic, overflowing with vivid, swirling imagery. Alliteration and a bardic, almost incantatory prose describe the green and golden hills of Wales. The chapels rang with the thunder of prophets. The psalms rolled like the sea in the lungs of the miners. There, the Old Testament burned brighter than the coal seams! On those Nonconformist mornings, the children learned about Jerusalem. They learned their names even before their own rivers. Jordan flowed through the hymns. Zion was no distant dream but a living pulse in the blood.

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  • Saint Valentine’s Day – Romancing the Data – 2026/02/14

    Saint Valentine’s Day – Romancing the Data – 2026/02/14

    To Begin at the Beginning

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    Oza-Cesuras, Saturday 14th February 2026

    Ah, cariad, let us speak now in the shadowed cadence of the valleys. The voice rolls like the Tawe after rain. It is rich and resonant, a little rough at the edges yet velvet beneath. Burton might have murmured it after one too many whiskies. Or Hopkins in that quiet, measured thunder waits. Patient as stone, it strikes. And through it all, the ghost of Dylan himself weaves words like nets of starlight over Talacharn’s black waters. Gwynfor’s steady, unyielding fire burns low and true for the land. It is more than soil and more than song. It is memory made flesh.

    If Data and Information were our Valentine’s sweetheart, she would be fierce and elusive. She would not be some simpering rose but a wild thing of the Welsh hills. She would be ancient and newborn, speaking in cynghanedd of numbers and patterns. Her breath would be the soft hiss of wind through bracken.

    We would woo her thus, yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg entwined, with the lilt that carries the green pulse of Cymru beneath every syllable:

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  • DATA WORLD: Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Big Data is not Data Warehousing – 2026/01/29

    DATA WORLD: Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Big Data is not Data Warehousing – 2026/01/29

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    29th January 2026

    Hold this thought: To paraphrase the great Bob Hoffman, just when you think that if the Big Data babblers were to generate one more ounce of bull**** the entire f****** solar system would explode, what do they do? Exceed expectations.

    I am a mild mannered person. However, one thing that irks me is hearing variations on certain themes. These themes include phrases like “Data Warehousing is Big Data.” Another is “Big data is in many ways an evolution of data warehousing.” Lastly, some say “with Big Data you no longer need a Data Warehouse.”

    Big Data is not Data Warehousing. It is not the evolution of Data Warehousing. It is also not a sensible and coherent alternative to Data Warehousing. No matter what certain vendors will put in their marketing brochures or stick up their noses.

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  • DATA WORLD: The Future of Data: Embracing Cognitive Liquidity- 2026/02/03

    DATA WORLD: The Future of Data: Embracing Cognitive Liquidity- 2026/02/03

    The End of the Fortress: Why the Future of Data is “Liquid”

    By Martyn Rhisiart Jones | Madrid, 3rd February 2026

    In a landmark session at the Welsh Academy, Sir Afilonius Rex sat down with Martyn Rhisiart Jones. They aimed to dismantle our outdated obsession with “data management.” The verdict? The era of the digital fortress is dead. In its place, a new paradigm of Cognitive Liquidity and Data Autonomy is emerging, redefining how we integrate global knowledge.

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  • Les Gallois et la Construction de l’Amérique 2026/01/19

    Les Gallois et la Construction de l’Amérique 2026/01/19

    Oui, nous l’avons fait !

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    Madrid, vendredi 16 janvier 2026

    Ah, les états d’origine des galés. Fueron les révolutionnaires silencieux et les escurridizos Padres Fundadores. Ce sont les chicos et les chicas qui ont essentiellement construit le pays. Vous allez ensuite disparaître dans le papier peint comme si vous deviez de l’argent !

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