I would have preferred brackets until a top-five in each were determined.
Brackets:
The Americas
Africa
Europe + Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Leb, Syria...maybe more, like the Caucuses
Asia + Oceania
Europe and Syria in the same brackets. Never! Your proposal is reasonable and should be considered next time, but I can see why countries like Syria and Lebanon should be in same bracet with Europe. Turkey and Caucasus maybe and Israel definitely. Australia and New Zeland could be in European bracket because of culture. In UN Israel, Australia, New Zeland and Canada are in the European "bracket". (US is not, because it's the permanent member of security council.)
