The ILC: The next step in Particle Physics

The international linear collider, ILC, is the next big project in particle physics, following the LHC. This machine will allow the precision study of the top quark and the electroweak gauge bosons. It will explore the Higgs sector, and study possible extensions of the Standard Model like supersymmetry with great precision. The ILC will be complementary to the LHC, which will start operation well before the ILC. Together both machine will offer the community the unique possibility to explore the physics at the TeV mass scale. In this paper the accelerator, the physics program and the experimental program at the ILC are reviewed.