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This seminar will focus on the perspective of understanding sources of asymmetry in the Sun-Earth connection to gain insight into the fundamental processes shaping our near Earth space. A major source of asymmetry throughout the magnetosphere is the presence of a By component in the IMF. I will focus how the IMF forcing during such conditions can be different in the two hemispheres, and how that can lead to profound asymmetries in convection, magnetic field configuration, precipitation, and electric currents. There are still open questions regarding exactly how these asymmetries arise and vanish. One example is the role of nightside reconnection and/or substorms. Two opposing views have been suggested: Does tail reconnection provide a mean to introduce asymmetry in the closed magnetosphere, or does it act to reduce the asymmetry? Further, the importance of lobe reconnection in contributing to global climatologies of ionospheric convection is discusses from an inter-hemispheric perspective.