Nations that build together rarely bomb each other. When neighboring countries bind their economies and their security into shared structures, everyone at the table benefits, and they all realize that there are some things too precious to lose. A citizen with a growing business, a stable currency, and a defended border has little appetite for war. Prosperity is the greatest weapon against war. 

The good news is that we do not need to create a unifying structure from scratch. The blueprints already exist, tested across three generations in the most peaceful and prosperous stretch in European history. NATO proved that collective defense can deter aggression; the European Union demonstrated how economic integration can interconnect former enemies to the point where the cost of war becomes inconceivable. These are architectural principles only requiring adaptation, not adoption.