An evaluation of, comparing and contrasting, the power sharing agreements that were used to regulate the ethno-national conflicts at different times in both divided societies in Northern Ireland, the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and in Lebanon the 1943 National Pact and the 1989 Ta’if Accords. Michael R. Kerr is the author of ‘Imposing Power Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon’ and ‘Transforming Unionism: David Trimble and the 2005 General Election’. His perspective of considering external factors, as opposed to conventional internal factors, as the key for reaching peace and making it work is of special relevance especially when power sharing is the main issue in Iraq. Michael Kerr is Tutorial fellow in the London School of Economics’ International History Department and Visiting Lecturer in its Government Department where he finished his PhD in 2003. He also worked from 1999 to 2005 for former Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble at Westminster whilst teaching at the LSE and SOAS.