Roughly nine years ago, the two editors met for the first time in Amsterdam, the Netherlands at the EURO III meeting (organized by the Association of European Operational Research Societies) there. As a result of our initial meeting, the two of us planned and carried out a number of activities in the multiple criteria decision making area, much of it supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The latest of these activities was a NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on multiple criteria. decision making and risk analysis using microcomputers. The institute was held in Tarabya,...