Paracels and Spratleys

[huy.duong@ctsu.ox.ac.uk]

Dear friends,

I have an idea on how to divide these archipelagoes and their
related resources. I think this idea is geographical and not
political/nationalistic and thereby avoids many conflicts.
What do you think?

For an archipelago, find the `centre of gravity', this CoG represents the 
archipelago.

A small bit of coastline will exert an ownership on the CoG that is:
1)proportional to the angle substended at the CoG,
2)inversely proportional to some power, eg 1, of the distance
from the CoG.

(The reason for rule (2) is as follows. Suppose country A has a coastline
that is a semicircle of radius a centred on an island and country B has a
coastline that is a semicircle of radius b(>a) also centred on the island.
Although both coastlines substend the same angle of 180 degrees on the island,
A is nearer and should have more ownership.)

For each country, calculate the ownership by all bits of coastline
that satisfy the following conditions: 
a)used by the international convention of the seas to calculate
ownership of the seas,
b)a straight line (strictly speaking a geodesic) can be drawn from that bit of 
coastline to the CoG without going over (i) that country's or (ii) other 
countries' land.

(The reason for (i) is so that for example the Indian Ocean coast of Malyasia
is irrelevant. The reason for (ii) is so that Australia's coast is irrelevant.)

The resources related to the archipelago are defined by the international
convention of the seas. They are then jointly exploited and the costs and 
benefits divided among the countries according to the ratios of ownership.

Huy