[comex]

> If two countries start to compete, there isn't really anything that stops them from annihilating one another in disturbing fashions (e.g. erecting walls, slinging propaganda, blockading, etc.) other than treaties.

Or literally annihilating each other, with bombs, for that matter. Thankfully not likely to happen anytime soon in Europe, but in general, conflicts between countries have no limit to how far they can escalate, unlike between corporations...

[nrp]

This is critically important. The EEC and eventually EU came directly out of two incredibly destructive wars on the European continent. If corporations came to that, the leaders of whoever survived hopefully would evaluate the externalities of escalating competition and decide to take the safer route of closer economic bonds.