1. Explain the Kuril dispute briefly, as is today; what is the current state of the problem; what challenges/issues does it present for Russian foreign policy 2. [And this is the bigger part – the majority of the paper] you need to discuss the history of the dispute and the history of the efforts to resolve it: when did the Kurils came into Russia’s possessions and how; what was important about the islands? what was age role/the status of the islands during the Cold War and how did the dispute figure into the superpowers’ confrontation? You can explore additional or other topics. The biggest thing is that the paper needs historical studies at its core.