Determining QCD properties via multi-hadron quark-gluon resonances

The present domain of nuclear physics and the information it may provide about fundamental particle physics are discussed. The properties of QCD probed by different means are assessed. It is concluded that reactions in the ``quark-gluon resonance'' region are sensitive to the detailed dynamics of QCD including aspects of the asymptotic freedom to confinement transition. The quantitative results of the R-matrix method as applied to the nucleon-nucleon scattering are reviewed and it is shown that the width, production channels and spacing of levels are signatures which can distinguish these resonances from conventional structures. The best experimental facilities to investigate resonances are proton accelerators producing intense, polarized, energy variable beams and secondary beams of pions, kaons and polarized neutrons, in the range of a few to about ten GeV.