It’s a sort of unstated rationalist dogma that all 0-sum games can sort of be twisted into positive-sum games.
In the formal maths of game theory, a zero sum game is one where one players utility is precisely minus the other players utility. This is a very special case and almost never happens in the real world. The alternative is a non-zero sum game, utilities are isomorphic up to scaling and adding a constant. Take the slave and slave owner game. If you add a third option where they both kill each other, then both parties prefer the other two states over both killing each other. The game is no longer zero sum. That doesn’t stop it being a conflict in the sense that both parties want to take actions that harm the other. It just isn’t pure 100% conflict.
In the formal maths of game theory, a zero sum game is one where one players utility is precisely minus the other players utility. This is a very special case and almost never happens in the real world. The alternative is a non-zero sum game, utilities are isomorphic up to scaling and adding a constant. Take the slave and slave owner game. If you add a third option where they both kill each other, then both parties prefer the other two states over both killing each other. The game is no longer zero sum. That doesn’t stop it being a conflict in the sense that both parties want to take actions that harm the other. It just isn’t pure 100% conflict.