I don't think the author cares about semantics here, "nation-states" is in direct contrast with "larger companies" used in previous line. Using a single word "c

I don't think the author cares about semantics here, "nation-states" is in direct contrast with "larger companies" used in previous line. Using a single word "countries" may not sound sufficient to contrast the pair "larger companies" and may not give it emphasis needed to indicate the gravity of the comparison being made. It had to be this or something like "entire countries".