  In this paper we consider the following question: For bounded domains with
smooth boundary, can strong pseudoconvexity be characterized in terms of the
intrinsic complex geometry of the domain? Our approach to answering this
question is based on understanding the dynamical behavior of real geodesics in
the Kobayashi metric and allows us to prove a number of results for domains
with low regularity. For instance, we show that for convex domains with
$C^{2,\epsilon}$ boundary strong pseudoconvexity can be characterized in terms
of the behavior of the squeezing function near the boundary, the behavior of
the holomorphic sectional curvature of the Bergman metric near the boundary, or
any other reasonable measure of the complex geometry near the boundary. The
first characterization gives a partial answer to a question of Forn{\ae}ss and
Wold. As an application of these characterizations, we show that a convex
domain with $C^{2,\epsilon}$ boundary which is biholomorphic to a strongly
pseudoconvex domain is also strongly pseudoconvex.
