  Singular fiber resolution does not describe the spontaneous breaking of gauge
symmetry in F-theory, as the corresponding branch of the moduli space does not
exist in the theory. Accordingly, even non-abelian gauge theories have not been
fully understood in global F-theory compactifications. We present a systematic
discussion of using singularity deformation, which does describe the
spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetry in F-theory, to study non-abelian gauge
symmetry. Since this branch of the moduli space also exists in the defining
M-theory compactification, it provides the only known description of gauge
theory states which exists in both pictures; they are string junctions in
F-theory. We discuss how global deformations give rise to local deformations,
and also give examples where local deformation can be utilized even in models
where a global deformation does not exist. Utilizing deformations, we study a
number of new examples, including non-perturbative descriptions of $SU(3)$ and
$SU(2)$ gauge theories on seven-branes which do not admit a weakly coupled type
IIb description. It may be of phenomenological interest that these
non-perturbative descriptions do not exist for higher rank $SU(N)$ theories.
