—“You can’t bomb people into peace”—
Arguably false. The great ‘peaces’ have all been the result of those empires possessing and exercising disproportionate power over trade routes, and in doing so creating single commercial zones, so that all competition is forced into the market for goods and services, and all political and military competition is suppressed. So the evidence is quite the contrary: you absolutely can bomb into peace. No question about it. In fact, bombing into peace is the standard by which such things are accomplished. The question is not the bombs, but whether one chooses to rule or exploit those one has bombed. If one chooses to rule, and rules by rule of law, then who GOVERNS is something quite different. Most polities will tolerate rule if they can continue governance (discretionary production of commons). It is not the provision of commons (government) that challenges less advanced people, but the adjudication of differences by objective means.
Aristocracy’s function is to rule, not necessarily to govern. We prohibit violence and theft, prohibit error, bias, wishful thinking and deceit., and adjudicate differences. We do not favor much else other than beauty. Aristocracy uses limits. Hypotheses we leave to others.