ISBN: 0195889428 by Richard Stubbs (from my Amazon.com review)


Books that cover the military history of irregular warfare campaigns are plentiful. Most will provide great insight or not so great insight into tactics and military strategies for counterinsurgency. Very few seem to take a more holistic approach to discuss the grand strategy of a campaign at the political, social, and military level combined. This broader view is more helpful to citizens and political leadership than are the microcosm of only the military aspects.

Counterinsurgency is more often a political and social problem fed by political or social injustices that serve to promote insurgent support in the form of material supply and fresh recruits. The absence of good texts providing case studies has doomed us to repeat the same learning process in each new conflict. Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare is a classic case study of the 1948-1960 Malayan Emergency which provides the broader view needed in all aspects of a counterinsurgency grand strategy. We would do well to return to it as a study in one success story and what was learned from that experience. It would also serve well as a model for more studies of its kind.

Hearts and Minds begins with a study of how the communist insurgency sprang from the insecurities and uncertainties of a near anarchy at the sudden end of Japanese dominance in the area after the second world war. It demonstrates how lawlessness creates a vacuum that charismatic guerrilla leaders can fill with their own brand of security. The book covers various phases in the conflict from the inception and growth of the insurgent forces through outside influences out of the control of the local authorities such as the economic boom of the Korean war period. It also covers the policies that led to failures and even fed the rebellion in the early stages then picks up on key points of the philosophy that led to the eventual defeat of the guerrilla forces. It is a study of the conflict that gave rise to the "hearts and minds" philosophy talked about so often with regard to counterinsurgency and provides us with a success we can study for key elements that provided that success.

This is a very well-written work that provides the political and social backgrounds to the conflict without overpowering the reader with the multitude of acronyms and abbreviations of the political movements and parties involved. Other books have focused on the military aspects or political aspects of this and other conflicts. This book covers a wider, more meaningful view of the political, social, and military aspects that can be considered in how we approach similar conflicts. It is an important work that can provide great insight to political and military leadership in current and future conflicts. Very highly recommended.