The Impossibility of Cohesion Without Fragmentation

Abstract: Most models in game theory and network formation implicitly assume that relations between agents are feasible whenever incentives are aligned or interaction opportunities exist. Under this premise analytical attention is directed toward equilibrium efficiency or probabilistic link formation while the possibility that a relation may be structurally infeasible is rarely examined. This paper develops a static axiomatic framework in which relation maintenance is treated as a problem of structural compatibility rather than strategic choice or stochastic realization. Agents occupy positions in an abstract space and relations are subject to minimum conditions defined over these positions. A bifurcation event such as a vote declaration or institutional assignment fixes agents positions and thereby determines which relations are compatible. We identify position dependent gain axes as the key source of structural selectivity and prove an impossibility result under any non degenerate positional constraint no bifurcation event can preserve all relations. Instead the post event network necessarily exhibits either the simultaneous emergence of fragmentation and cohesion or a degenerate trivial case in which constraints are position independent. The result is purely structural and does not rely on preferences beliefs incentives or dynamic adjustment. It establishes a fundamental limit on universally cohesive outcomes and reframes division not as a failure of design or coordination but as a logical consequence of positional constraints.