In politics, a partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one community’s homeland. That change is done primarily via diplomatic means, and use of military force is negligible.

Common arguments for partitions include:

• historicist - that partition is inevitable, or is already happening, this argument is related to historicism
• last resort - that partition should be pursued to avoid the worst outcomes (genocide or largescale ethnic expulsions), if other means fail
• cost-benefit - that partition offers, on balance, a better prospect of conflict reduction than the maintenance of the existing borders
• better tomorrow - that there will be a reduction in actual violence and conflict recurrence, and that the new more homogenized polities that emerge will have better prospects for the peaceful development in future
• rigorous end - heterogeneity in cultures is bad, homogeneous states should be the goal of any policy