Lee, Terence; Defect or defend: military responses to popular protests in authoritarian Asia

Excerpt: Terence Lee’s Defect or Defend compares two successful regime changes in the Philippines and Indonesia, where popular mobilization was aided by defections within the armed forces, with two failed cases in China and Burma. The failures in China and Burma are attributed to the presence of stronger authoritarian regimes that maintained control through "power-sharing institutions." The book highlights the crucial role of military defection in the success of popular mobilizations, contrasting it with the resilience of authoritarian systems in preventing regime change.