This paper reviews the sources of conflicts of Asian and African elephants with people. We describe the behavioral patterns associated with crop raiding and attempts to prevent and mitigate the damages. Although some cultural differences across Africa and Asia affect the approaches used to resolve problems, conflicts arising from the sheer size of the animals result in similar overlapping issues. In both areas the economic realities of elephant damage create a dynamic problem without a clear solution, despite the wide range of attempted methods. In the larger issue of public policy regarding land use, conflicts with elephants in fact are simply one prominent aspect. Elephants compete with humans for water, food, and space. While elephant and human populations escalate, agricultural lands expand and habitat for elephants dwindles, resulting in an expansion of the elephant/human interface (Kiiru; R.F.W. Barnes; Tchamba; O'Connell et al.). The expansion of this interface has resulted in heightened elephant/human conflict, requiring difficult management decisions concerning how to accommodate both elephants and humans. In this paper, we summarize the status of the elephant/human conflict 2 interface in both Asia and Africa. We discuss how and why the conflicts differ or remain similar between case studies, and how complex social perspectives on wildlife and parks can confound or ameliorate attempts to resolve the problem depending on current management practices in each case. Examples are drawn from our experiences in India and Nepal (LAH) and the Caprivi region of Namibia (CEO).