Disagree that your suggestion should be the only option. Many people are going to travel to a country, and yet they can't pick the country on a map. Being able to input the country name is very important.
I would suggest that the user should be able to type the name, or part of it, and have the interface suggest closest matches for the cases (most) where they get it wrong but close enough.
I would suggest that the user should be able to type the name, or part of it, and have the interface suggest closest matches for the cases (most) where they get it wrong but close enough.