Photon-Photon Collisions - Past and Future

I give a brief review of the history of photon-photon physics and a survey of its potential at future electron-positron colliders. Exclusive hadron production processes in photon-photon and electron-photon collisions provide important tests of QCD at the amplitude level, particularly as measures of hadron distribution amplitudes. There are also important high energy γγ and eγ tests of quantum chromodynamics, including the production of jets in photon-photon collisions, deeply virtual Compton scattering on a photon target, and leading-twist single-spin asymmetries for a photon polarized normal to a production plane. Since photons couple directly to all fundamental fields carrying the electromagnetic current including leptons, quarks, W's, and supersymmetric particles, high energy γγ collisions will provide a comprehensive laboratory for Higgs production and exploring virtually every aspect of the Standard Model and its extensions. High energy back-scattered laser beams will thus greatly extend the range of physics of the International Linear Collider. (author)