ZERO-SUM GAMES AND MIXED-MOTIVE GAMES IN THE FIGHT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION WITH THE WEST FOR UKRAINE

Researchers' attention for the Game Theory increased during the Cold War, and even more after this moment, therefore nowadays it is being used in multiple domains. This evolution led, inevitably, to the overuse of different concepts and/or elements, an eloquent example being what happened during the Ukrainian crisis of 2014 and after it. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the "race" for Ukraine between the Russian Federation and the West, analysed through the concepts of zero-sum games and mixed-motive games. The research will focus on the Russian state. The conclusions of my endeavour are that the zero sum-games are too simplistic and are not the appropriate tool to use to understand the foreign policy of the Russian Federation, whereas the mixed-motives games are more suited for this kind of process.