Ukraine-Russia Conflict: A Zero-Sum Game
This article talks about the possible payoffs of the Ukraine-Russian war within the lens of game theory. The author discusses each actor in the conflict, starting with Russia and how its situation is become increasingly desperate. Russia’s ability to succeed at their original goal of complete domination have become so slim that it’s advised to just accept a ceasefire and cut their losses short. On the other hand, Ukraine’s perspective hasn’t changed since the war started; Ukraine has its back against the wall and has no plans of surrendering. At this point in the war, negotiations have begun, and its safe to assume that both sides are using game theory to help mediate the next moves within the conflict.
This article relates to the game theory lesson because of the strategic choices and payoffs that were outlined. For Ukraine, they can either continue fighting and refuse to surrender until they win, or they lose the war. For Russia, they can ultimately win the war, take over some territories within Ukraine, or lose completely. The game in this context, however, is a little different because the conflict has turned into a zero-sum game – “a loss for one side represents an immediate gain for the other side.” This makes the probabilities for each payoff much harder to calculate and nash equilibrium only possible if both sides agree on the same result.