Seems important to consider threats and game theoretic reasons to carry them out when considering pessimizing. That is, one actor may pessimize the other as retaliation rather than as a goal, or carry out an action to ensure future threats are credible. The dynamics in these cases are critical, since the goals may be amenable to cooperative solutions, rather than be fundamentally and unavoidably zero or negative sum.
Seems important to consider threats and game theoretic reasons to carry them out when considering pessimizing. That is, one actor may pessimize the other as retaliation rather than as a goal, or carry out an action to ensure future threats are credible. The dynamics in these cases are critical, since the goals may be amenable to cooperative solutions, rather than be fundamentally and unavoidably zero or negative sum.