Conventional wisdom regarding the political and military crisis in Afghanistan contends that Pakistan is key to any lasting resolution of the conflict. When US president Barack Obama announced a surge of 30,000 US troops in Afghanistan, he referred to Pakistan’s tribal areas as the epicentre of global terrorism and declared that the country was “at the core” of Washington’s new Afghanistan strategy.

However, Pakistan and the US interpret the situation differently and have separate regional agendas; the cooperation of the Pakistani government with the new strategy cannot be taken for granted and its military is reluctant to play the role of anvil to the US hammer. This article examines the responses of the Pakistani government, media and public opinion to Obama’s Afghan surge.