In this chapter we focus particularly on recent advances in observations and simulations of reconnection at the magnetopause and in the near magnetotail, as these are the sites most heavily investigated by observations and simulations. The scenarios at the two sites have characteristic differences. At the magnetopause, reconnection occurs between two topologically distinct regions, the shocked solar wind and the magnetosphere, which also have quite different plasma properties. Reconnection generates a magnetic field component normal to the magnetopause and thereby leads to an interconnection between the two regions. As discussed in Section 1.2 and further in 4.5, magnetopause reconnection may have quasi-stationary features (as indicated in Fig. 1.6) as well as features that indicate localized, temporally limited reconnection (FTEs; Russell and Elphic, 1978; Elphic, 1995; Fig. 1.9). Critical parameters in reconnection at the magnetopause are the magnitude of the magnetic field component in the direction of the magnetopause current (guide field), the angle between the magnetic fields on either side of the current sheet, and the plasma properties, all of which may play a role in when and where and how reconnection takes place. Major questions of magnetopause reconnection, to be addressed in Sections 4.1 and 4.2, concern the location of reconnection sites and the temporal variability of the process under different solar wind conditions, both of which may be related to the role of a guide field.