Zulu

COUNTER-insurgency – security measures set out as a coherent and integrated strategy against guerillas has often relied on the overwhelming power of the state to crush the enemy. But it has often been recognised that when fighting the “long war” against a force that is hard to categorise, one of the most effective strategies of counter-insurgency is to win the “hearts and minds” of the wider population. In June 1948, Communist Terrorists (CTs) in Malaya began an insurgency to further their aim of seizing power. It became a murderous campaign. The British-led counter-insurgency realised that a heavy-handed response would be politically counter-productive so measures were used to isolate the CTs and get the population on-side by cultivating the “hearts and minds” ethos.