Conflicting Objectives in Decisions

and report on these various methods and on their application.As the editors suggest in their preface, better understanding of the processes of decision making with multiple objectives will enable those who must make such decisions to do so more intelligently and thus will enhance the likelihood of good decisions.The contributors are leading scientists and analysts from government, industry, and the academic world, and their papers (and the informal discussions that follow many of them) should be of interest and use to researchers, analysts, managers, and decision makers throughout the world.The editors have prepared an introductory chapter that provides a background to the papers and places them in context.We are especially pleased that the first volume in this series is edited by three IIASA alumni -David Bell was with the Institute from 1973 to 1975 and Ralph Keeney from 1974 to 1976; Howard Raiffa was its first director, serving from the founding in 1972 until 1975.We believe that this book makes a distinct contribution to the literature of systems analysis, and we are gratified that IIASA has been able to contribute to its preparation.