Well Estragon, some of your counter examples don't fit the mold.
I know for a fact that about 95% of Iran is Shiite muslim, they are not riddled with tribal in-fighting.
I'm not sure about Pakistan but Kuwait is very similar, as is Qatar...phillipines, hmm....no for the longest time they had been a Spanish subjugate,
they may still have a dictatorship-like government (not looked at them either) but they don't have a myriad of cultures fighting eachother.
Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, they are tribal, Iraq has Shiites Sunnis Kurds and some 20+ other ethnic groups...Marsh Arabs...so on...and before
Iraq, and even now but very much less so, these groups didn't get along.
The best current example is Somalia, which just 12 or more years ago was in complete civil war due to its tribal issues, and still they use tribal
laws.
But recently a more dictatoral government does reside there, and now, it is gaining stability, bringing these myriads of peoples into a sort of
unwanted union...but peace is starting to settle there even though it's only a tad compared to what we think of as peace.
That's my point, it's quite different then say Iran where most of the people are through with fighting themselves...another example is Sudan,
massive civil war has been raging there for about 40 years!
It's just a simple connection, between taking a large myriad of peoples, and forging them into a democratic union, it can't be done without the
dictatoral force that we've seen around the world.
That's all...more specific points about the countries you listed would help though
Sincerely,
no signature