Thanks for sharing - will definitely read it. I think you have the right idea that you can't impose order by the top down, or create a social ecosystem by force of will. But there may be points of leverage - if the physical and cognitive situation is understood well enough - where you can apply gain some influence over emergent social patterns, even if you can't control them. I ask the same question often - is there a set of basic geographic, social, and economic prerequisites for groups and societies to achieve stability? Can we use this knowledge to better predict the feasibility and extent to which we can "nudge" a system we'll never completely control towards patterns of complimentary adaptation that we describe as desired political outcomes? If we don't have an answer to this, it's hard to say how killing people and breaking things (or even building roads and schools) will achieve a better peace in the long run.