Analysing partition: Definition, classification and explanation

Political Geography 26 (2007) 886e908
www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo
Analysing partition: Definition,
classification and explanation
*Brendan O’Leary
Lauder Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict,
3819-33 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Abstract
Political partitions should be carefully distinguished from secessions, de-colonizations and disengage-
mentsdthough they may accompany these phenomena. Political partitions involve a fresh cut, an at least
partially novel border, ripped through at least one national community’s homeland. Partitions of national
andmultinationalpolitiesmaybedistinguished,asmayexternalandinternalpartitions.Externalpartitions
have been rarer than suggested in conventional accounts, and explanations of their occurrence are evalu-
ated, and recommendations are made that their rarity should persist.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Partition; Secession; British empire; Ireland; Palestine; IndiaePakistan; Borders; Homelands; Cyprus;
Kurdistan-Iraq
Wording matters: parsing partition
partition n. & v.dn. 1. division into parts, esp. Polit. of a country with separate areas of
government.2.astructuredividingaspaceintotwoparts,esp.alightinteriorwall.v.tr.1.
,,
divide into parts. 2. (foll. by off) separate (part of a room, etc.) with a partition. parti-
tioned adj. partitioner n. partitionist n. [ME f. OF f. L partitioeonis (as PARTITE)]
(Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1990: 868) ...