Preface. 1. Preliminaries. 2. Minimization of Nonlinear Functionals. 3. Homotopic Methods in Variational Problems. 4. Topological Characteristics of Extremals of Variational Problems. 5. Applications. Bibliographical Comments. References. Index. ... the book is a valuable contribution to the literature. It is well-written, self-contained and it has an extensive bibliography, especially with regard to the literature in the Russian language. (Mathematical Reviews, 2001a) Springer Book Archives