The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic and Integrated Properties
  Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a benchmark for understanding disk galaxies. It
is the only galaxy whose formation history can be studied using the full
distribution of stars from white dwarfs to supergiants. The oldest components
provide us with unique insight into how galaxies form and evolve over billions
of years. The Galaxy is a luminous (L-star) barred spiral with a central
box/peanut bulge, a dominant disk, and a diffuse stellar halo. Based on global
properties, it falls in the sparsely populated "green valley" region of the
galaxy colour-magnitude diagram. Here we review the key integrated, structural
and kinematic parameters of the Galaxy, and point to uncertainties as well as
directions for future progress. Galactic studies will continue to play a
fundamental role far into the future because there are measurements that can
only be made in the near field and much of contemporary astrophysics depends on
such observations.
