As the withdrawal of international troops approaches, the cooperation of Pakistan appears as one of the keys to the stabilisation and consolidation of the gains made in 2011 in southern Afghanistan.

And yet, recent surveys show that the Pakistani establishment contin-ues to be dominated by geostrategic priorities that emerged in the 1970s, and that lack of mutual trust continues to characterise the three main actors involved in the Afghan quagmire – the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan.