Crucial issues for Statistics in the next two decades

This collection of articles stems from an Invited Paper meeting at the 52nd Session of the ISI in Helsinki, August 1999. The purpose of the session wa s to explore issues likely to be critical to the long-term survival of the discipline, if not the profession, of Statistics. The contributors in the s ession have all made outstanding contributions to both the theory and pract ice of Statistics, and have also had an ongoing interest in the long-term d evelopment of the subject. Subsequently, they were given the opportunity to elaborate on their contributions, for wider dissemination.