With new results from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), and GRANAT, hard X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy are in a period of discovery and vigor unparalleled in their history. The CGRO mission in particular has made fundamental contributions to understanding many classes of galactic and extragalactic objects. The CGRO discoveries of gamma-ray blazars, an isotropic distribution of gamma-ray bursts, bright black hole and neutron star transients, sites of galactic nucleosynthesis, and a large class of unidentified high energy sources have intrigued astronomers and the public alike. These discoveries have prompted a wide range of correlated observations by X-ray satellites and ground-based radio, IR, and optical observatories, adding to our rapidly expanding knowledge of the nature of high-energy emission. We now have the beginnings of a better understanding of the astrophysics of gamma-ray sources, and this in turn has raised fundamental new questions about the origin and evolution of high-energy objects and about the nonthermal astrophysical processes that occur in them. Looking ahead to the next decade, further discoveries in hard X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy are anticipated with further CGRO and RXTE observations and with the ESA INTEGRAL mission (launch ~2001). However, there are currently no major missions being planned beyond INTEGRAL and none being planned at all by NASA. Of particular concern is the highenergy regime (100 MeV - 100 GeV), where observations will soon come to a virtual halt in the next 2 years as the EGRET instrument on CGRO runs out of spark-chamber gas. Also of concern is the present lack of plans for missions that would 1) significantly improve on the BATSE capabilities to study gamma-ray bursts as well as conduct a full-sky survey and monitor transient source 2) follow-on the first exploration of the MeV band by COMPTEL with much better sensitivity, and 3) continue the important studies of nucleosynthesis begun by balloon instruments, OSSE, and COMPTEL. From a scientific standpoint, there is an urgent need for new observational missions. From a technical standpoint, the timing is excellent since powerful new detector and imaging technologies are in hand that promise major steps in observational capabilities. With this in mind, the GRAPWG recommends the following program in hard X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy.