  We review recent progress in modeling the quark-gluon content of mesons and
their low-energy interactions through the Global Color Model field theory. An
emphasis is placed on techniques that are shared with the approach based on
truncations of the Dyson-Schwinger equations of QCD. In contrast to most other
field theory models for QCD degrees of freedom in hadron physics, this approach
directly deals with the derived intrinsic space-time extent of the meson modes
in their role as field variables and can accommodate confinement as well as
dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry. Various theoretical techniques and
approximations found useful in this approach are described. Selected
applications reviewed here include the properties and interactions of the
Goldstone bosons, interaction vertex functions, low energy chiral observables,
electromagnetic interactions and form factors, and transition form factors.
Some initial considerations of Vector Meson Dominance and pion loop processes
are discussed.
