Special Issue: Conflicts in the Historical Context Mai ISHIDA Conflicts among individuals or groups occur when demanding new orders or defending old regimes. Such conflicts themselves often become part of the reconstitution of social order. In history, conflicts and their resolutions sometimes appear to bring about little change, but they may eventually lead to structural change in society This special issue consists of four papers dealing with ancient Egypt, early modern France, seventeenth-century Russia, and twentieth-century America. These case studies reveal the historical process of conflict and settlement which was bound by legal and social norms and influenced by human relations in their own societies. The following topics will be discussed: Introduction: A Perspective for the Study of Conflict 1. Mai ISHIDA, The Complaint of Hermias: Dispute Settlement and Social Structure in Egypt in the Second Century B. C. 2. Hiroaki SHIMANAKA, Reconsideration of the Fronde: A Case of Aix 3. Mihoko CHIBA, The Lutheran Church in the Novaia Nemetskaia Sloboda: Conflict and Arbitration in Seventeenth Century Russia 4. Michiko YASUI, Affirmative Action during the Nixon Administration: Case Study of 1969 Philadelphia Plan