The development of polymeric materials and their optimization for high performance applications requires a detailed understanding of their degradation sensitivities, and the various features affecting durability and reliability. This book provides an overview of the current trends in this research field. Individual topics present the latest concepts related to material lifetime prediction methodologies, new insight into complex degradation mechanisms, and how the knowledge of their performance limiting processes can be applied to the design of materials with improved features. Appropriate analytical characterization techniques that are fundamental to all areas of polymer degradation and optimization studies and the overlapping performance interests in a range of existing and developing applications are discussed. The audience will be material engineers and polymer chemists working in academia, large research institutes and industry dealing with polymer design and development, material testing and durability assessments.