This series, Finite Systems and Multipartide Dynamics, is intended to provide timely reviews of current research topics, written in a style sufficient- ly pedagogic so as to allow a nonexpert to grasp the underlying ideas as well as understand technical details. The series is an outgrowth of our involvement with three interdisciplin- ary activities, namely, those arising from the American Physical Society's Topical Group on Few-Body Systems and Multipartide Dynamics, the series of Gordon Research Conferences first known by the title "Few-Body Problems in Chemistry and Physics" and later...