Japan was long a literate and relatively advance culture, and it did well. China of course was always powerful and will be again. South Korea was a civilized if backward place, it’s doing ok but it has already peaked. And let’s not forget half the country is insane.

Southeast Asia though has always been a backwater. My hunch is that it will continue to be so. To the extent that some parts of SEA are civilized is because of having millions of civilized Chinese among them.

Turkey has a GDP per capita of 10k and an IQ of 91. And it has Islam problems.

Cambodia is supposedly around 89-91 IQ and this might go up a bit if they are behind on the Flynn effect. GDP per capita of $945.

Vietnam is supposedly around 93-96 IQ, equivalent to Argentina or maybe even approaching Portugal. They may also be somewhat behind on the Flynn effect. GDP per capita of 1,598.

It’s entirely possible, even probable that these countries will never become South Korea.

But if the witch doctors in Washington have muti that is strong enough to keep the world economy going, then IQ alone should not be sufficient to keep these countries from experiencing some significant GDP growth.

Other factors, maybe.