Name the country where a great circle line can be drawn over the country's territory without crossing land of another country
Include overseas territories and uninhabited islands, as long as the great circle line does not cross land territory of another country. Disputed territory is included if it's under the country's de facto control.
Hint: Think about large countries with outlying islands and overseas territories
wow, does this mean that, at last, someone came up with a good definition of 'country length'?! although I guess it might be difficult to define it. are you going to have a 'land only' version? well done!
What a wonderful quiz! As a New Zealander, I'd say no-one here considers Cook Islands to be part of New Zealand, but a separate country. You can't fly from NZ to the Cooks without your passport, and clearing customs at each end. NZ'ers cannot live as of right in the Cooks. NZ and the Cooks are both a part of the "Realm of New Zealand", but that's not a country. The realm is defined as "the lands over which the monarch is the Queen of New Zealand" - in other words the realm is a New Zealand Commonwealth, in exactly the same way as UK has the British Commonwealth (which no-one suggests is a country).
This is similar to China and Hong Kong then. People from China can't visit or live in Hong Kong without a permit, and have to clear customs at each end too. China and Hong Kong drive on the different side of the road, have different internet domains, IDD codes, electrical socket types, currencies, legal systems, Olympic teams, dialects and writing systems etc. Though everyone consider Hong Kong and China as one country.
China actively interferes with Hong Kong at every step, including refusing allowing democracy to operate there. New Zealand does not influence the Cook Islands at all; they operate as completely separate countries.
A related quiz idea for you - would you want to do a similar quiz, but this time allowing the Great Circle to transit other countries along the way? I've done this quiz for the longest distances across the mainlands of countries, which knocks countries like Kiribati from near the top to near the bottom.