We review the current observational knowledge of the interstellar magnetic field within similar to 150 pc of the Galactic center. We also discuss the various theoretical scenarios that have been put forward to explain the existing observations. Our critical overview leads to two important conclusions: (1) The interstellar magnetic field near the GC is approximately poloidal on average in the diffuse intercloud medium and approximately horizontal in dense interstellar clouds. (2) In the general intercloud medium, the field is relatively weak and probably close to equipartition with cosmic rays (B similar to (6-20) mu G), but there exist a number of localized filaments where the field is much stronger (some filaments could possibly have B greater than or similar to 1 mG). In dense interstellar clouds, the field is probably rather strong, with typical values ranging between a few 0.1 mG and a few mG.
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