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In politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.

This term is also applied, often pejoratively, to anyone who switches loyalty to other religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
, sports team, political party
Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
, or other rival faction.

physical act of defection is usually in a manner which violates the laws of the nation or political entity from which the person is seeking to depart.






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Encyclopedia


In politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.

This term is also applied, often pejoratively, to anyone who switches loyalty to other religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
, sports team, political party
Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
, or other rival faction.

International politics

Checkpoint Charlie Memorial
The physical act of defection is usually in a manner which violates the laws of the nation or political entity from which the person is seeking to depart. By contrast, mere changes in citizenship
Citizenship

Citizenship refers to a person's membership in a political community such as a country or city. It has different legal definitions in different countries....
, or working with allied militia, usually does not violate any law.

For example, in the 1950s, East Germans were increasingly prohibited from traveling to the Western Federal Republic of Germany where they were automatically regarded as citizens according to Exclusive mandate
Exclusive Mandate

An exclusive mandate is a government's assertion of its legitimate authority over a certain territory, part of which another government controls with stable, de facto sovereignty....
. The Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a physical separation barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic , including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany....
 and fortifications along the Inner German border were erected by the Communist East German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic was a self-declared socialist state created in the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the East Berlin of Allied Occupation Zones in Germany....
 in 1961 to enforce the policy. When people tried to "defect" from the GDR they were to be shot on sight. Several hundred people were killed along the border in their Republikflucht
Republikflucht

"Republikflucht" and "Republikfl?chtling" were the terms used by authorities in the German Democratic Republic to describe the process of and the person leaving the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR for a life in the American occupation zone West Germany or any other Western country....
 attempt. Official crossings did exist, but permissions to leave temporarily or permanently were seldom granted. On the other hand, the GDR citizenship of some "inconvenient" East Germans was revoked, and they had to leave their home on short notice against their will. Others, like singer Wolf Biermann
Wolf Biermann

Karl Wolf Biermann is a former East Germany dissident who now works as a German singer-songwriter....
, were prohibited from returning into the GDR.

During the Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
, the many people illegally emigrating from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 or Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc

During the Cold War, the terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to European annexed or expanded Soviet Socialist Republics of the USSR and Satellite state states, including members of the Soviet-dominated organizations Comecon and the Warsaw Pact....
 to the West
Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
 were called defectors. Westerners defected to the Eastern Bloc as well, often to avoid prosecution as spies. Some of the more famous cases were British spy Kim Philby
Kim Philby

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby or H.A.R. Philby , was a high-ranking member of British military intelligence. A socialism, he served as an NKVD and KGB operative....
, who defected to Russia to avoid exposure as a KGB
KGB

KGB is the Russian language abbreviation of Committee for State Security , which was the official name of the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991....
 mole, and 22 Allied POWs
List of American defectors in the Korean War

This is a list of the twenty-two United Nations soldiers and POWs who declined repatriation to the United Kingdom and United States after the Korean War, and their subsequent fates....
 (one Briton and twenty-one Americans) who declined repatriation after the Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
, electing to remain in China.

When the individual leaves his country and provides information to a foreign intelligence service, he is a HUMINT source defector
Clandestine HUMINT

A wide range of roles can be played by clandestine HUMINT sources. This definition includes the classic spy who collects intelligence, but also couriers and other personnel, that handle their secure communications....
. In some cases, defectors remain in the country or with the political entity they are against, functioning as a defector in place
Clandestine HUMINT

A wide range of roles can be played by clandestine HUMINT sources. This definition includes the classic spy who collects intelligence, but also couriers and other personnel, that handle their secure communications....
.

See also

  • Sociological definitions of apostasy
    Apostasy

    Apostasy is the formal religious disaffiliation or abandonment or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociology without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, one's former religion....
  • List of Cold War pilot defections
  • North Korean defectors
    North Korean defectors

    A number of individuals have Defection from North Korea.Different terms are in official and unofficial use in East Asian languages to refer to this group of refugees....
  • Treason
    Treason

    In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
  • Renegade
    Renegade

    Renegade may refer to:*Renegade, a synonym for Turncoat.*Renegade , a term for a fallen Christian or a knight without allegiance. From Spanish renegado, from Medieval Latin renegatus, perfect participle of renego deny....
  • Turncoat
    Turncoat

    A turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party....