Innovation in cooperation is very doable; this is why many innovations stem from government-funded research, not just military. And there's Linux.
War is competition by other means, no argument there, but war also leads to a whole nation cooperating in the war effort, with different companies normally at each other's throats now cooperating in full to churn out what the war machine needs.
Maybe there is another side to this, namely that war leads to full cooperation within a nation to innovate, and the normal, non-wartime, competitive goings-on within a nation are actually a break on innovation.
Most definitely.
A bit of a shame, then, that we need wars to achieve these levels of cooperation. I sometimes wonder what we could achieve in global cooperation in stead of competition.
Anyhoo, I am not entirely convinced that competition is the best possible driver of innovation. Natural curiosity and cooperation could also go a long way. I know I design stuff for the fun of it, sometimes with friends.
Is it just fear and greed stopping us from having a go at it?
Right. Back to surpressing my idealism. Time for a beer.