The phrase "a defection that" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a specific instance or type of defection, often in a political, military, or organizational context.
Example: "The report detailed a defection that significantly weakened the enemy's intelligence capabilities."
Alternatives: "an abandonment that" or "a betrayal that".
It is a defection that would alter two conferences forever.
Keith Henderson Frinton-on-SEssexssex We are told that Clacton is a viable Ukip target because its electorate contains a large number of poor white pensioners (A defection that leaves Cameron's strategy in tatters, 29 August).
When he was in the House, Mr. Jeffords was the only Republican to vote against President Reagan's tax cut in 1981, a defection that earned him a black mark in the Republican conference.
Managers at two nuclear reactors owned by the New York Power Authority asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today to block the sale of the plants to a private company, saying that the buyer was breaking promises about job security and benefits, and that the result could be low morale and "a mass defection" that would compromise safety.
In the kind of defection that worries Mr. Romney, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, once a pillar of the party establishment, bolted to Mr. Trump's camp last Friday, and three members of Congress have endorsed his candidacy.
"It was the most dangerous and difficult defection that took place since the beginning of the revolution," he said.
It is not just the sheer scale of the defection that is worrying for Lib Dems (some of whom fear it will get much bigger); it is the potential permanence of it.
The true irony is in the dog-eat-dog defection that has reduced the White House Press Corps to cannibalism.
The officer wanted me to report his defection — along with his call for other military officers to do the same — and he had already recorded a video of his defection that I could post immediately on the New York Times Web site.
I asked him if he had been in touch with people in al-Shabab, and indeed whether it was a condition of his defection that he try to persuade others to swap sides.
The Security Council resolution allows for them to be questioned outside the country, a step amounting to encouraging defection that the inspectors have yet to take.
