Competition and cooperation aren't polar opposites, though. Mutually cooperating teams / tribes / nations / organizations often find themselves in competition

Competition and cooperation aren't polar opposites, though. Mutually cooperating teams / tribes / nations / organizations often find themselves in competition with other mutually cooperating teams / tribes etc. Competition is definitely a huge incentive to innovate, though it also may lead you astray. An extreme version of competition is ... war. And right now we see the dynamic develop: dozens of NATO and NATO-adjacent countries cooperate with one another and with Ukraine so that Ukraine may "compete" on the battlefield with a stronger neighbour, Russia. Cooperation and competition by proxy. Russia tries to counter that by building its own cooperation team, but finds almost no significant volunteers to team with, except Belarus.