The Hawk-Dove Game in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe, for the past seven months, has been the emblematic scene of aggressive foreign policy and symbolic of the Hawk-Dove game. As Russia has armed and aided pro-Russian separatists in the Ukraine in their attempt to split and form their own nation, they have most certainly created a foreign policy game of which the western Euro-American Alliance has been the responder. The conflict only contains pure strategies and does not include mixed strategies.
Russia, as the aggressor, has taken on the role of the Hawk in its quest for more power and influence in the region through supplying arms and equipment (possibly soldiers). The western Euro-American Alliance has taken it upon itself to induce sanctions on Russia but has not responded militarily in any strong fashion.
The payoffs are based on the relative influence the two players have in Eastern Europe. Both players can act simultaneously (although Russia acted first) as Russia can arms the separatists as the Euro-American Alliance can impose sanctions and help arm Ukraine in defense.
However, the Hawk-Dove game takes a different fashion in this situation. The payoffs for Russia playing Dove are lower than the U.S playing Dove (if both play Dove) as Ukraine would join the Euro-American Alliance and create an imbalance in influence in Eastern Europe. Thus, Russia assumed that the Euro-American Alliance would play Dove and chose a pure strategy (Hawk). By playing this pure strategy and committing fully to it, he was able to guarantee that the Euro-American Alliance would not play Hawk as well for fear of starting a large war which would devastate both sides.
In this game, there are two Nash equilibrium. There is (HR, DE-A) which became the situation and there is (HE-A, DR) which would only be possible if Russia had not acted aggressively from the beginning. Since it is in one’s best side to play Hawk so that they gain the larger payoff of the equilibrium, the player to act first controls the situation. Russia acted first and therefore laid the grounds for the eventual equilibrium (HR, DE-A).
| Euro-American Alliance, Russia | D | H |
| D | 12, 18 | 24, 6 |
| H | 18, 12 | 0, 0 |
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/18/politics/poroshenko-us-visit/